twelve ports the foundation of the wall garnished with all manner of precious stones the building of the wall of Jasper what a bride the Lamb's wife is as shee is busked and adorned with the glory of God what a joyful company of harpers cloathed in white follow the Lamb Rev. 14. Rev. 19. Yea 4. Even in this life in the lower countrey and the out-fields the fruits that grow in the land are good Rom. 14. 17. Gal. 5. 22. Psal 72. 16. 1 Pet. 1. 4 5 6. Psal 16. 11. 1 Cor. 2. 9. what a life-guard for Kings sons Isa 6. 2 3 4. Psal 34. 7. Psal 91. 11 12. and on the other hand what golden nothings and clay-dreams does the spirit of the world follow after what spiritual gallantry is in the man that says and resolves time and all that Solomon had shall not satisfie me I must either be a King above time or have nothing Will a beggar aspire to a Kingdom or a sow seek after pearls what does the spirit of the world but lie and swear and whore and oppresse in the sons of disobedience the godly is of a far more excellent spirit 5. It s a poor spirit that acts in Cicero Seneca and other Pagans the bastard and the servants priviledge is little to a Kings heir and son As to the second the differences of that Spirit which is of God are considerable 1. The spirit John 14. 17. remains in his own and dwels in them as in his house Rom. 8. 11. as a man remains and works in a shop or work-house and the soul lives breaths acts discourses in the man so the spirit of adoption prays groans believs teacheth witnesseth speaketh heareth in the believer Matth. 10. 19. Rom. 8. 16 25 26. Now the world cannot receive this spirit John 14. 27. no more then the noble soul of man can find lodging in a brute beast try what spirit acts in you and the principles of your actions and you shall know the influences Every mans moral actings are as John's baptisme from Heaven or of Men what sparkles of influences kindle the heart in your actings 2. The Spirit of God John 16. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall guide the way to you in all truth Rom. 8. 14. as many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as are led driven either as a flock by the shepherd or as a ship by the wind are the children of God The Spirit is a Pilot and a Steersman acting and moving in the Saints directing counselling enspiring in all actings its easie to know the spirits leading by what it drives at Rev. 16. 13. For they are the spirits of divels working miracles which go forth to the Kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battel of that great day of God Almighty This he says of the three unclean spirits like frogs the Popes firebrands and incendiaries who came out of the mouth of the Dragon out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false Prophet What hellish influences must drive these men delivered up to such leaders There is a spirit who rules in the children of disobedience Satan the Prince of the air Eph. 2. The spirit of giddinesse and errour leads Egypt Isa 19. 14. The spirit of whoredome Hos 4. 12. Hos 5. 4. that inclines to Idolatry The spirit of lying 1 Kin. 22. 22. The spirit of errour 1 John 4. 6. The spirit of unbelief that was in the ten spies led and drive many Num. 14. 24. But Caleb had another spirit with him It 's the sin of the time we live in to persecute resist the spirit and the more outlettings of the spirit that appear in Steven the more the Jewes set themselves against him For Acts 7. 27. they cry out with a loud voice and stop their eares and run upon him when he saw heaven open being full of the Holy Ghost he was before full of the Holy Ghost but now there is a high spring-tide and a new mighty flowing of the influences of the Holy Ghost and the height of goodnesse and excellent actings of the spirit drawes out their malice to the full as Steven told them 51. Ye have alwayes resisted the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to fall crosse with all the might in a hostile way upon the spirit O tremble to hate and fight against the marrow of godliness and to mock the spirit O that it were not this day the sin of Scotland and of the generality of the Ministers of the Gospel in this Land In the Prelates times the seekers of God met not with such bitternesse as even now they meet with 3. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. Vphold me with thy free Spirit Psal 51. 12. It 's proper to natural men in whom the spirit dwels not to be vile slaves to lusts and the more of the spirit in any the more active are they in the Lords wayes and hardly can the spirit be where there are not influences of grace For it 's the Spirits office to be stirring and active as the horses of Egypt are flesh and not spirit that is lumpish dead feeble unable to save not spirited active to deliver and in this especially the actings of the spirit appear in the fiery spiritness of heavenly influences Would ye be carried on and helped in duties get the spirit and ye cannot misse heavenly influences the drinesse of the earth speaks the suspending of rain and dew in the clouds and a heaven of brass the man is dead and under bands and straitned in prayer then must the showres of influences be restrained Psal 51. 12. Vphold me with thy free spirit What then v. 13. Then I le teach transgressors thy wayes Take a work where there are an hundred wheels of which the higher moves the lower then when the first and highest moves not all the ninety and nine must stand When the spirit breathes not and influences are restrained what wonder if the soul be deadned For the Marigold loures and weeps in its kind and droops when the Sun is down our prayers would blow upon the North and South wind that they may blow The breathing and blowing of prayer do readily waken up the spirit though he must stir in praying also else we are dead and breathless 4. The spirit that is of God is a praying spirit Jude Praying in the Holy Ghost Of all the Tongues and Languages on earth the Holy Ghost loves most to speak prayer-wise and in the language of humble supplications Rom. 8. 29. We know not what we should pray for as we ought What then shall the work lie Nay the spirit takes it off the poor mans hand but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with sighs that cannot be expressed And rather or spiritual work be at a stand the Third Person lends a lift to the groaning soul that cannot pray
in that hour it shall be given you it is not ye that speake but the spirit of your Father speakes in you Enthusiasts spirit suggests night-works to be done in day light and many unseasonable actions contrary to godly prudence as to read godly Treatises when they should hear the Word preached the spirit that suggesteth this is not of God for the spirit of God cannot counter-work himself 11. The spirit of God acts the soul and the man within his own orb and sphere of grace Nature acts not upon the Moon to move it up to the sphere of the Sun nor could it be called a kindly and connatural motion for the Sun to move down in the orb of the Moon It 's not the spirit of the Lord which acts the plow-man to move out of his element in the throne or in another calling in which God hath not placed him for it is not from the motion of the spirit of sanctification for David to go out of his element of grace and move in Satans orb of uncleanness and blood-shed the spirit of holiness is a friend to the holy Law of God all influences and actings of the spirit are to be tried by the same rules by which the spirit is tried some influences to Scriptural duties are from God and his spirit other influences from the Scriptureless spirit of Satan or corrupt man himself every stirring and impulsion must not be fathered upon the spirit of grace The fourth particular is the subject or seat of burning and its the heart did not our hearts burn within us the heart is the only seat of heavenly burnings not simply as the heart of man which is evil and only evil by nature in all its out-goings Gen. 6. 6. Gen. 8. 21. and supplanted and wicked Jer. 17. 9. But the new heart of man Ezek. 36. 26 27. the heart in which the love of God as a flood is spread abroad by the holy Ghost Rom. 5. 5. the heart and soul that loves the beloved Christ Cant. 3. 1 2 3. as for the unrenewed heart it is no more a hearth-stone or a seat to kindle this fire upon nor will it burn in this heart then if you would kindle a fire of coals and fewel and dry timber upon the superfice of the ocean sea for the heart of the unrenewed man would eat up and quench all this fire and the spirit does no more give influences for the heavenly burnings in the heart of an unrenewed man then he gives influences to the water to burn and cast out flamings as a huge fire doth or to the midnight darkness to shine as the Moon or Sun and this is the sixt difference The renewed heart is only the seat of this fire that comes down from heaven the natural heart is not capable thereof Q. Is there not an heart warmness in the natural and unrenewed man Answ Such as is the heart such is the heat such as is the hearth-stone such is the fire and the fewel that but as on it But the differences be these 1. The heat of the unrenewed man is strong and cannot be commanded they hasten as mad men after their idols who run after other gods Psalm 16. 4. And Paul says of his heat in persecuting the Saints Acts 26. 11. I compelled them to blaspheme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was abundantly and exceedingly mad and phrentick out of my wit in burning malice against them now the mad man can hardly command his madness yet upon other sinful and mad grounds Paul could have been perswaded on the contrary as the Pharisees were mad against Christ yet the fear of the people and of their own â—â—ns restrained them long from doing violence to him and in matters which neerly concern God the hear of â—n â—â—renewed man may be quenched as a man that counterfeitech himself to be mad can command his madness and 〈◊〉 who fains himself to be sick can command his sickness out one who is really possessed with a Divel and mad and one who is really sick of a raging fever cannot command either madness or sickness hypocrisie hath some dominion and empire over its own cursed heat and 〈…〉 â—ut say mountains on the love of Christ love breathes and lives under it devise torments lent burning quick 〈…〉 of 〈◊〉 or in a seeâ—â—ing Caldron to the Marâ—â—rs of Christ in ten days out off the ten singers one by one and so the rest of the members in diverâ— days or some 〈…〉 devise hellith 〈◊〉 the witnesse of Jesus 〈…〉 and bounded hand and fooâ— as the word 〈…〉 is made use of by the commanding 〈◊〉 sweetly 〈◊〉 love of Christ to die an hundred deaths 〈…〉 rather 〈◊〉 deny Christ for such as so love not 〈◊〉 lives to 〈◊〉 are not their own nor hath a believer 〈…〉 his 〈◊〉 not can the word if 〈◊〉 could 〈…〉 and an â—â—rth of the gold of 〈…〉 of Christ and the strong inâ—â—ence thereof So true is that Cant. 8. 7. Many waters cannot quench love That is a strong fire which all the waters in the Sea cannot quench Nor can the floods drown it If a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned Then drowning and burning death fair allurements and gifts cannot counter-work the love of Christ What and are loves coales so hot yea he spoke to that v. 6. Love is strong as death jealousie is cruel as the grave the coals thereof are coals of fire which have a most vehement flame the flame of God But natural men for all their heat in the matters of God can let out and let in and stretch out the truth for all their heart-burnings as if it were kid-leather and they may take and give and borrow and lend upon Christs matters whereas the Saints are awed with that Buy the truth and sell it not Let indifferent and cold men who never felt the influences of loves fiery coals know this Ah the interests of Christ have been looked on in Scotland too indifferently and coldly the coales of self-interest burn strongly 2. The bare letter of the Gospel wins not in upon the heart it warmes the skin and not the heart whereas Christs speaking and opening the Scriptures with his Spirit and the key of David casteth not fire upon the heart the heat is all upon the letter and externals and upon Sacrifices New Moons Solemn Assemblies formes without taste All Pauls heat is about Christ and the hope of the resurrection the Jewes his adversaries heat could be nothing of this heart-burning but for Moses Law in the letter circumcision and other ceremonies now wanting their life Christ For Christ had now 1. removed from the letter of the ceremonial law and there is no life there as touching the observance thereof But Christ hath 2. not departed from and gone out of the ceremonial law as touching the doctrinal teaching thereof to lead us to Christ and therefore that law should be read preached
INFLUENCES OF THE Life of Grace OR A PRACTICAL TREATISE CONCERNING The way manner and means of having and improving of Spiritual Dispositions and quickning Influences from Christ the Resurrection and the Life BY SAMUEL RUTHERFURD Professor of Divinity in the Vniversity of St. ANDREWS in SCOTLAND John 3. 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth Cant. 4. 16. Awake O North-wind and come thou South blow upon my garden that the Spices thereof may flow out Let my Beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits LONDON Printed by T. C. for Andrew Crook and are to be sold by James Davies at the gilded Acorn neer the little North door in St. Pauls Church-yard 1659. Books published by Mr. Samuel Rutherfurd professor of Divinity in St. Andrews in Scotland 1. THe due Right of Presbytery 2. A Disputation against Liberty of Conscience 3. The Rise of Antinomians Familists and Libertines 4. Christs dying and drawing Sinners to himself 5. A Sermon preached before the Parliament 6. Influences of Divine Grace 7. De Providentia Dei 8. A Survey of Mr. Tho. Hooker's Church Discipline CONTENTS GOd intends that no man should be saved by the Law p. 1. c. 1. p. 1. True liberty grace loves to be restrained from evil p. 1. c. 1. p. 2. That the first Adam was to pray for perseverance is not clear p. 1. c. 1. p. 3. Adam was to rely on God for perseverance but as promised by the covenant of works idem Our grace in the second Adam choicer then that in the first idem The Lords Influences in all p. 1. c. 2. p. 4. Infinite almost Influences of God p. 1. c. 2. p. 7. To look not spiritually on influenâ—es is brutish p. 1. c. 2. p. 8. What influences are p. 1. c. 3. p. 9. Influences of God are sutable to Gods end idem Influences of God for nilling and willing most rare and excellent idem How Christ and the promised spirit must be the causes of gracious influences p. 1. c. 3. p. 10. We are to believe that he who purchased by his merit the habit of grace shall give sutable Influences and to fear also our propension to fall p. 1. c. 3. p. 12. The promise of Influences in Christ p. 1. c. 3. p. 13. The necessity of Influences p. 1. c. 4. p. 15. Reasons of renewed Influences p. 1. c. 4. p. 16. The first Adam might want Influences the second cannot idem Satans actions alwaies destitute of Influences p. 1. c. 4. p. 17. How God withdraws Influences in particular acts hic et nunc and yet hath promised to bestow Iufluences in the regenerate by promise p. 1. c. 4. p. 18. The Lord acts on us by his Influence but we act not on him ib. How we cannot pray away desertion and the tryings withdrawings and yet are we to pray submissively for the removal of desertion and are to pray against withdrawings p. 1. c. 4. p. 19. The Lords withdrawings makes not the Holy One the author of sin nor destroies liberty p. 1. c. 5. p. 20. The cause why God is not chargeable with the act of disobedience and man is chargeable p. 1. c. 5. p. 21. Our interpretative wanting of Influences and our formal sinning in the same act cleared p. 1. c. 5. p. 24. The soveraignety of God is destroyed by Pelagions to the end they may exalt mans free will p. 1. c. 5. p. 25. Of our acts and spiritual duties under the spiritual withdrawings of God p. 1. c. 6. 26. We are to do our part in duties under withdrawings grace sweetens duties p. 1. c. 6. p. 29. What soveraignety is and how it differs from omnipotency p. 1. c. 7. p. 33. We storme more at permissive providences then at our own permitted sins p. 1. c. 7. p. 37. They are most graciously active to do the will of God who are most graciously passive to suffer his will p. 1. c. 7. p. 38. The unsearchablenesse of the Lords dispensation into the eternal standing and falling of angels and men idem Its vain to determine that the providence of never sinning is choicer then the providence of your imbringing of Christ God-man to dye for sinners p. 1. c. 7. p. 39. The righteousnesse of God through faith is incomparably above our inherent righteousnesse p. 1. c. 7. p. 4. It s a more eminently declarative glory which is brought forth in the second Adam nor possibly could have been in the full and final obedience of the first Adam p. 1. c. 7. p. 41. By justification we are not only negatively freed from guilt and wrath but also possitively righteous p. 1. c. 7. p. 43. We are not to struggle with permissive providence but to be low because of the deep result of that providence our own permitted sins p. 1. c. 8. p. 45. The soul humbling thoughts that should flow from holy soveraignity p. 1. c. 8. p. 46. Soveraignety is eminent in holding of possible wills and in determining the measure of suffering Of the soveraignety of God in the works of Creation and Providence p. 1. c. 9. p. 52. Who ever flatteringly complains of the want of influences of grace hates these influences Nature cannot complaine of the want of gracious influences p. 1. c. 10. p. 58. How we may lawfully complain of withdrawings of influences of grace and how we may lawfully desire influence p. 63. The faultinesse in not praying is not because the holy spirit moves us not to pray but because we stir not up our selves to pray p. 1. c. 10. p. 64 We are to act duties before we feel the actings of the spirit p. 1. c. 10. p. 71 How to wait upon the breathings of the spirit how its lawful how not p. 71. Our impotency to duties being reproved cannot excuse us in the omitting of them p. c. 11. p. 73 The Lords withdrawing of Influences is conjoyned with our guiltinesse and cannot be found an excuse for not praying p. 1. c. 11. p. 74 The sin of the creature is not from the Lords withdrawing of his physical Influences but from our withdrawing from his moral command p. 1. c. 11. p. 76 Natural men wish Physical Influences of God but they hate moral honesty p. 1. c. 11. p. 80 Riches cannot add mercifulnesse to men p. 1. c. 11. p. 82 Faith and grace do not depend on extraordinary means and teachers sent from hell and we are much deceived thinking had we more grace we should be more gracious p. 1. c 11. p. 84 If free will be weak in the improving of a natural power it will be so in the improving of supernatural grace p. 1. c. 11. p. 85 God ties us to his one way of removing of sin not to our empty wishing that it were removed p. 1. c. 11. p. 93 What sort of Influences we are to seek from God p. 1. c. 11. p. 94 The using of means is an approved way of God p. 1. c. 11. p. 96 Some violently brought into Christ some more
p. 270 How men naturally complain of sin original 271 We do not so much as by strength of nature we may do and we adde to our own lameness and then we unjustly complain of God for our sinful impotencie ib. That spirit as the spirit lays no obligation on us but to move in Scriptural duties 276 No violence but from our selves hinders us to believe ib. God loves using of external means pro tanto ib. How far we may act to fetch the wind and to get influences ib. We are not to judge of our selves by occasional enlargednesse or deadning of the heart for the time cap. 9. p. 280 Enlargedness of heart and influences are near of kin 281 Branches of enlargedness of heart ib. Influences on the Angels and the glorified ones 283 Many straitned and dead ones reproved 284 Prayer begets holy dispositions to pray and heavenly dispositions to pray begets prayer and faith c. cap. 10. p. 287 Holy acts begets holy acts and holy dispositions beget holy dispositions ib. The Lord so frames his precepts and promises as our actings are suitably required to his influences 288 The differences of the 1. spiritual estate 2. of the temper 3. of the condition 289 What Davids present disposition was 291 The doubling of words noteth 1. certainty 2. addition of assurance 3. fieriness of affection ib. It s fit to make an eike to the holinesse of influences which the Lord offers to us 292 We may speak to God and professe in prayer the sincerity of our heart to God and the causes why 294 Its hard to guide well grace and glory so long as sin dwelleth in us ib. The Lords giving of grace layes bands on him to give more grace and to adde new influences to old 296 What a heart the repenting thief and what a heart Hezekiah brought out before the Lord in his dying ib. â— properties of holy dispositions 298 Dispositions spiritual are seeds of holy actings ib. Zeal bringeth forth holy actings 299 Heavenly dispositions are real helps to holy actings ib. Properties of heavenly dispositions to act under indispositions ib. A disposition counterworking a disposition 300 The spirit in an heavenly disposition at length prevaileth ib. 8 Pride and 9 Wordly mindedness hinder influences of grace lovelinesse and heavenly mindedness promote the same p. 362. c 10 Bastard zeal 11 Vncleanness 12 Malice 13 Wordly sorrow hinders the contrary graces promote influences p. 395 c. 14 Wordly and false joy 15 False love p. 398 c 16 Ignorance and hatred of the Gospel p. 400 17 Wrestling against providences obstruct the influences of God p. 402 God by his influences first acts and stirs by order of nature and in the same moment of time we act and stir without any violence p. 404 18 Heavenly and spiritual thoughts and considerations draw along heavenly influences as unclean thoughts do the contrary p. 405 Keep the oyl of the spirit clean if you would have heavenly influences to fall on the spirit p. 407 We are to act both morally and physically with the spirit p. 408 Prayers conclude not soveraignity ib Other impediments of influences from the mind will and affections p. 4. c. 4. p. 409 Heritical light ib A corrupt will p. 410 Hating of Christ and his grace obstruct influences p. 411 Diverse actings of the spirit in the Spouse sick of love for Christ hold forth influences the spirit as is cleared by the song of Solomon p. 412 Hating of Christ p. 414 The soul loathing of God ib The spirit gives no influences where there is no knowledg p. 415 Influences of the spirit are connatural to the spiritual man ib Sensuality and influence of the spirit are inconsistent ib Soul desires after God have sweet influences p. 416 Spiritual joy speak strong influences p. 417 Literal crying should not exceed the impulsion of the spirit within ib How hope and audacity hinder or promote influences p. 419 Moral acting cannot avail us whithout real influences of the spirit p. 420 Frequent acts of faith promote influences of the spirit ib Hope promotes influences p. 421 Sinful boldness obstructs influences ib Anger hindereth influences p. 422 How Elisha could not prophesie by reason of anger The influences of Musick therein ib A meek spirit is a fit work-house for influences of grace and high revelations instanced in Mosâ—s the man Christ John the beloved disciple p. 423 Horror and unbelieving fear an impediment of influences p. 425 Influences are considered two waies 1. Physically 2. Morally how men resisted the spirit p. 4. c. 5. p. 426 The Lord seeks not our consent to the first infusion of a new heart p. 427 We are married to Christ before we consent to be married p. 430 The Lord determines free will and doth no violence ib We are unexcusable in not doing our duty though the Lord deny his necessary influence p. 432 God acts in all both by the immediate influence of his power and of his person p. 433 The Lord most particularly leads his own p. 435 Two sort of causes one in fieri for the producing of and giving being to a thing another in facto esse for the preserving of the same in being God is both waies the cause of gracious actings ib. The right missing is to misse influences not of gifts and of common grace only but of special grace p. 436 A reprobate can no more miss the special guidance of the sanctifying spirit then a horse can miss the wings of an eagle that are not due to him ib Of the giving of the heart of God p. 437 We are more our own by law and less our own by Gospel ib Christ cares more for his own body then the members care for themselves p. 438 Christ care is rather now more when he is glorified then lesse ib. We vainly think that the habit of grace is given to be our justification and that as a dispensation from sin ib Inability to do without grace is pretented both by the lawless bankrupt and by the humble convert but for divers ends ib The unrenewed man would have come down to his way p. 343 There is a sad threatning against not using of outward means though no promise be made to the using of only outward means p. 344 The opposition made by hypocrites is only in the outward gate p. 345 Reprobates resist not the formal acts of regeneration p. 346 Mr. Baxters order of repentance p. 347 Doubts and reasons against Mr. Baxters new remedying law of grace made to all mankind p. 349 Vniversal redemption extols nature and free will and makes a moral season which heals not nature all the graces that the Gospel owns p. 352 The law teacheth but healeth not p. 357 Our formality in praying ib How nature beginneth and the spirit acteth on and with our literal acting p. 3. c. 14. p. 358 Some truth we must first physically hear and consider before we believe p. 359 Though it be true if the
make use of it as he pleaseth but the saving acting of the Spirit is not in every mans power 3. The command is a Rule and Object of our Faith and gives me not strength to obey but the heavenly disposition and saving acting are not the object but the efficient cause which addeth strength to obey the command craves the debt its true its impossible to pray in faith without the acting of the Spirit it follows only that it s so impossible that we are also guilty and unexcusable in our virtual desiring that it may be so We are wounded but we love to shed our own bloud As also in the Regenerate there is never an utter withdrawing the habit of grace keeps the heart warm and loves to be blown upon and stirred even under actual ceasing of breathings Obj. 2. When there is an utter ceasing of the spirit it would appear that the spirit forbids us to lift at his work until the Spirit the only Master of work be there himself Ans One of the three is ever a work either the Father is waiting till the Son pray John 14. or the Son is commanding the breathings of the Spirit It is some casual work that the sinner is the passive object of the Spirit there is never an utter ceasing of the Spirit There are some habitual stirrings of the Seed of God under the ceasing of actual influence as the ripe Apple enclines to fall off the Tree when there is no shaking of it the Ship is a mending in the Shore when she sails not and if it were no more but one of the three is a working about a Child of God it s not to be despised For who knows the thoughts of Christ and his pleading in Heaven for such as suffer the evil of affliction for Christ And if a believer wrestle under deadnesse Christ much more is a work to help a more spiritual sufferer to wit one that is as it were a patient under sin and flesh and the withdrawing of God Obj. 3. There is no Commandment in the New Testament for the doing of half a Duty to wit to pray and not to pray in Faith and Fervour therefore we cannot be commanded to pray when the Spirit withdraws his influence without which the Duty of necessity must be lame and broken Ans It follows not for there is less of the Gospel in the command as a command for in either Law-command or in Gospel-precept the Lord commands whole and unbroken obedience and in it God seeks somewhat which he lost in Adam which we are obliged to doe and he is under no Law to give us grace to obey And as is said we are willing to want his help where the command should put us to a humble missing and mourning for our wants and a distrusting of our own strength and a weeping over our broken condition and a high prizing of our surety and his strength 2. It s a part of command that we go about the bulk or body of the duty and gather together the dry bones and wait humbly until he command the Wind and Spirit to blow on them and we sin in omitting of half a command Obj. 4. His yoak is easie and his Commandments are not grievous but if it be not in our power to pray when he withdraws his Commandments shall be unpossible and his yoak heavy Ans His command is easie by the grace of God and love of Christ the Wheels move sweetly when Grace and Love oyls the Soul and yet it no more hinders that we cannot pray when he withdraws then the burning of the Fire and the rising of the Sun which are works of Nature most easie and sweet are possible when the Lord forbids the Fire to burn and the Sun to rise his Gospel commands actu primo of themselves are sweet but under withdrawings hard and legal Obj. 5. Praying and seeking of God at set and fixed hours were not lawful For if we cannot pray but when the Spirit moves us we cannot say we shall pray at any hour for we cannot tie the Spirit 's joyning to our hours and again if we are to pray at any hour we please we use the habit of grace and supplication when and as we will as a Musitian may sing when he will or not sing Ans 1. We have not any question now about religious set hours such as the morning and evening Sacrifice or the three hours of prayer used by David Morning Evening and at Noon Psal 55. 17. and Daniel chap. 6. 10 11. Acts 3. 1. Acts 10. 3 9 10. and the godly Jews for by no divine Precept are we tied to such hours Papists abuse the Scripture to Canonick hours But in Christian prudence we may fix a time to reading praying conferring on the Word and to other sacred duties yet do we not tie the Spirit 's joyning to our hour the man Christ set a night apart for praying and so did Jacob for wrestling by tears with the great Angel Genes 32. 24. Hos 12. 3 4. without limitting the Spirit in his influences to any time nor yet will it follow that we use the habit or spirit of grace and supplication when we will for sanctified will is to set the time and to actuate it self by the habit of grace And the same Argument shall conclude that the Husbandman who sets a time for plowing and sowing must limit the Lord to joyn his influences For except the Lord build the house they labour in vain who build it though they set days to the hired Masons Except the Lord keep the City the Watch-man watcheth but in vain though times be set to the hired Watchers It s in vain to rise up early Psal 127. 1 2. and it s as impossible to plow build watch rise early without the common influence of God the first cause as it is to pray in Faith without the special breathing of the Spirit of grace Yet Libertines and Antinomians will not say that they sin in setting a time for building plowing watching these seem considerable about hours of praying 1. Though we fix an hour it becomes Faith to await the Angels moving of the water and when the Lord adds his influences to step in and joyn our strength cheerfully and with humble praises to him who draws 2. When there is a bentness of heart such a day or such a fixed hour to pray build not too much upon the appointment and promises of our own heart to say to morrow I le do wonders by prayer remove mountains 1. It s good here as in a purpose of going to a City to continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain to say in a trembling subordination to God as James counselleth chap. 4. 13 15. If the Lord will we shall live so to say if the holy soveraignty of grace breath fairly and strongly I le do well in praying yet not I but his grace and if the wind of
complaint of the very malignant servant as also the rich Gluttons divinity reflects upon the gracious dispensation of God Luke 16. 30. Nay father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent Which is as much as God is to be blamed that his five brethren repent not for he bestows not sufficient helps of salvation on them Q. 1. What is the book of Moses and the Prophets but a paper roll of letters and syllables would he send a Preacher from Hell and a Messenger from Heaven to give them sufficient warning and instruction of a Heaven and a Hell it were good but that he does not he then is to be blamed not my five brethren 2. He who shews mercy on whom he will and hardneth whom he will and that by a strong mighty will which no man can resist he can find fault with no man though he sin and harden his own heart For his absolute Soveraign will is far above me and my strength but so doth the Lord saith the carnal man Rom. 4. 18. 19. and the holy Ghost saith such an Objection is unworthy to be moved or answered nor becomes it base clay and the clay pot so to argue with the great potter and former of all things 2. Influences for getting of the habits or performing the acts of saving grace are the Lord 's own therefore Soveraignty is his Law he may bestow them or withhold them as he pleaseth especially if the Creature be willing to want these influences and if the Sun rejoyce with all his heart at the influences and concurring providences of God to the contrary sinful actings as he doth Exod. 5. 2 8 16 17 18. Psal 14. 4. Psal 10. 6 7 8. 4. 10 11. Psal 36. 3 4. Psal 84. 5 6 7 8. Prov. 1. 11 12. Prov. 2. 14. Prov. 4. 16. 17. Prov. 10. 23. Prov. 14. 9. Prov. 7. 18. Prov. 9. 17. Psal 49. 11. Luke 11. 39. Psal 5. 9. Psal 64. 6. 3. Though we could not conceal the Lord's concluding of all under unbelief and their guiltiness who are so concluded and the mystery of the Lord 's rejecting the Jews and calling the Gentiles with the free obedience of the one and free disobedience of the other and the Lord 's having mercy on whom he will and hardning whom he will with their willing running in ways of disobedience and rebellion and say as Paul Rom. 11. 33. O the depth c. yet adversaries have no cause of objecting this to us more then to the Scriptures of God 4. Prop. Gracelesness is satisfied with gracelesness and is no more desirous and thirsty for grace nor darkness after the Sun light or coldness desireth the fires heat yea as Satan cannot destroy Satan the body of sin cannot love to be subdued by grace and the man hating both Christ and his Father John 15. 24. and pleasing himself in that way who yet complains that God doth withdraw his grace and so cannot command us or exhort us to repentance is like to him who lies still in the furnace and loves to be burnt and complains that he is scorched and tormented and the Lord will not lift him out of the furnace 5. What a proud Pelagian nature is this for any to say had he the habit of grace which was in David he could act as David and could secure himself from adultery and murther but how did David who had David's heart fall in these horrid crimes can any interpose himself surety and put grace which he hath not or nature which he cannot command to undertake to obey God in all things were it not safer to be pained with the bondage of sin and be sick for Christ and his grace and never to interpose self to be surety for self but to be strong in free grace only Ephes 6. 10. CHAP. X. 1. Soveraignty in actings of grace 2. We are not to seek influences but such as are suitable to the Word 3. Of divers influences 4. How we complain of want of influences and how we may suit them 5. We are to act under indispositions 6. How we are to pray continualy 7. Not to act duties while we feel breathings of the Spirit is an unsafe Rule 8. Preparations before Duties 9. To wait on breathings before we act Duties how lawful how not LEt it be futher considered in these Particulars how unjust we are and how free the Lord is 1. Who ever complains of the want of grace and yet remains in the state of nature doth close with his want of grace For 1. The renewed mans complaining of the want of grace is neither in sense or godly feeling nor in faith and humble believing Nature can no more complain of the want of grace with any spiritual and godly sense then a sucking child can weep because he is not an understanding man of thirty years old for darkness cannot seek after the Sun light for so it should desire its own destruction nor can cold desire heat nor Satan be divided against Satan and therefore these are but feigned and counterfeit bemonings For the actings of sinful nature with delight say that the man hates grace which he professeth he so much desires for only grace can thirst after and long for grace Joh. 15. 24. If I had not done among them the works which no other man did they had not had sin but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father Such a hatred of the fulness of grace Jesus Christ cannot consist with a lively desire of grace Prop. 2. It is a right Rule not to separate Soveraignty from the Word or the Omnipotency of grace from the Promise otherwise we make a sort of Idol of Omnipotency seek we them and pray for influences of grace not peremptorily hic nunc to every single acting Psal 119. 2. My soul cleaveth to the dust quicken thou me according to thy word Ver. 28. My soul melteth for heaviness strengthen thou me according to thy word Ver. 107. I am afficted very much quicken thou me according to thy word v. 154. For 1. A gracious heart seeks no other out-lettings of grace to this or that duty but according to the promise Now the promise is not contrary to the Soveraign dispensation and there is no such Soveraignty but that there are many withdrawings of God whence follows deadness and the souls melting for heaviness Nor is there either promise or dispensation that the belever shall in every moment of time be lively and vigorous and have the heart lifted up in the ways of God except we would say Earth is Heaven and we are not for a time in heaviness if need be 2. There is a bastard literal heat and vigor of going about duties that comes not from the Word no bastardheat comes from the Word but by accident for the Spirit that speaks in the Word speaks his own spiritual and lively comforts and actings not that which may flow from a
3. Would God give me a new power I would run now this power he denyes to me and gives to many That this special practical doubt may be fully removed 1. A word to the Objector 2. To the Objection To the Objector 1. If the Lord had given me the same grace that he gave David I should run as David 1. It is of much concernment who moves the Objection whether a Convert or a non-convert it is commendable in neither but in an unhumbled non-convert it is senseless If the sense be had the Lord bestowed on me the grace habitual and actual such as he bestowed on David I should be a man according to the Lord's heart as well as David No thanks no praise or glory to David that he is a man according to God's heart True and therefore no guilt is upon the Objector nor is any punishment due to him that he remains in cursed nature this follows not 2. The sense is had I grace I should be a gracious man what is this but I would have been a convert if God had made me a convert But 1. The Objector says no more then the fallen Angels had the Lord made us Divels to be elect Angels and confirmed us in grace then should we have been elect Angels So might Judas have said had grace made me the beloved Disciple that leaned on Christ's bosome I should have been a sound believer this is a meer speculation no preaching of heart-love to the man Christ all the Reprobate may say had the Lord made us all holy and sinless men in a personal union with Christ we should all have been Christ's Cursed Libertines and Quakers so call themselves have they any more of the outlettings and flowings of free grace for that not a whit 2. If God would give me the grace which he bestowed on David I should be a man according to God's heart True but what is this to one who still dwels in nature should the sleeper say had I laboured more and slumbred and lain in my bed less I should have been richer but that supposition will neither be bread to feed him nor a web to cloath him there is nothing here but only idle wishing O if I had bread and such empty desires cannot feed an hungry man who is both idle and hungry Were the Objector a Seeker and did he search for wisedom as silver and dig for her as for hid treasures it were real or rational hunger but there is not a right esteem of bread there is no wise life-hunger such as is in living men 3. It were good that the Objector were humbled and did lie at the water side and complain oh if his Ship would fetch me over and his wind would blow Who shall deliver me what shall I doe were he loathing his own ways and highly in love with such ways of godliness as David and the Saints walked in it were good joyn despairing in self and feeling of a wretched condition with some desires of David's grace that should be liker a laying hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew saying we will go with you But the Objector is full and rich and self-righteous and whole and needs not the Physician and his own civil hell torments him not A Heaven of work-holiness and law-righteousness is the lie that is in his right-hand he feeds upon such ashes 4. The Objector would be convinced of his backward desires O if I had grace I would then labour and run Is it not 1. A contradiction he loves to be watered with the streams and dewings of Christ and hates and loaths the fountain But now have they both seen and hated me and my father John 15. 24. The world cannot receive the Spirit John 19. 17. and so must hate the Spirit and all his influences Fools hate wisedom And 2. Every spece and kind of being is delighted with its own being the Serpent hath not a desire or a real love to be turned into a man nor would a Lion be turned into a Lamb nor a Divel into an elect Angel that desire is contrary to the malice he hath to the image of God in the elect Angels the withered Earth loves rain and dew it would be perfected in its kind but a body of sin fights to keep its own being and would not be destroyed by an habit of grace nor doth an heir of wrath and a limbe of Satan seriously desire to be a child of God nor one tormented in Hell really will to be a holy Saint in Heaven he only would be an eased and painless man and seeks not to be free of blaspheming God See Balaam's and the rich man's desire Numb 23. 10. Luke 16. 24. Rev. 6. 15 16 17. 3. True it is we love not moral influences and to be actors in holiness that spoils and robs the man of his sweet lusts we would be content to be passive and have the breathings of the Spirit come upon us sleeping and without toyl that we might feel the only sweetness and delight of duties not the duty and the gracious acting it self as a man loves to have been made holy not to be holy nor to be made holy by acting and toyling for the man who hates the Spirit and hates Christ as the unrenewed Objector doth how can he love unfainedly either the gracious habit of holiness or the gracious influences of Christ and therefore we may have a desire of the Lord 's real and physical influences and hate holy moral influences for the damned only deprecate torment but they make no prayers to God to be made holy Mark 5. 7. Matth. 8. 29. Rev. 6. 16. 4. He who so objects being a non-convert yea all converts in this life in so far as there are in us the remainders of a body of sin close not a little with that divinity of Satan Gen. 3. 5. Ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil and therefore love to be independent and to be from under God as is the unhappy word of Spira in point of suffering O if I were above God So speak the enemies of our Lord who love not gracious influences as Christ is a wel-governing a sweetly awing Lord in all his influences Psal 2. 3. Let us break their bands and cast away their cords though they be silken cords So the Citizens of Christ Luk. 19. 14. hate him and set mans will on Jesus Christ's throne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We will not have this man to reign over us the World hates a ruling and reigning Christ and so we hate his holy actings and the wishing to have grace and gracious influences ruling in us is a dream we really desire no such thing but love an independency of our own as was the unlucky prayer of the son who loved not to be under his heavenly Father Luke 15. 12. The younger son said to his father Father give me the portion of goods that falleth
of Soveraignty is dreadful 8. Opposing the operations of the Spirit 9. Dispairing 10. Reproaching proud disputing 11. Submission to want of influences 12. What way the Lord recompenseth desertions 13. Closing with influences of the Law-rebukes ELihu most gravely speaketh Job 33. 13. Why dost thou strive with him for he gives not an account of any of his matters The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to strive and contend in words only as Mercerus and Pagnin either in judgement or out of judgement jurgare And its strange that any dare chide or scold with the soveraign Lord. But 1. Jacob's striving and wrestling in a holy willful peremptoriness in praying the Lord being on Jacob the wrestlers side really to bear him up by his grace is a lawful striving 2. There is a difference betwixt a meer temptation and a threatning The woman of Canaan strives not against Christ's not answering her one word Matth. 15. what he is master of his own Answers When Christ says I came not but for the lost sheep of the house of Israel she strives not he is Master of his own journey from Heaven to Earth yet that Answer weakens her not in the duetie of praying and worshipping But when she is reproached as to her interest in Christ It s not meet to take the childrens bread and to give it to dogs she mildly yet in the boldness of faith contradicts Christ suppose Christ out of his own mouth should deny a child of God to be a child of God there is place for a holy striving and contradicting of him 3. It is a gracious behaviour in the man Christ that he is affected with grief for the Lord 's forsaking and expresseth it with tears and strong cries Heb. 5. Should not the child weep when the father is angry 2. The privation of the greatest good such as the overclouding of the Lord's favour is a due cause of sadness Woman why weepest thou saith the Angel to Magdalen why weep I they have taken away my Lord. 3. It wants not reason I weep for my father is dead there is my mothers grave she is very new buried therefore I weep all my goods are taken away and therefore I weep yet the Lord hath forsaken me and I weep not that is dreadful So Job Jeremiah David Hezekiah are sadly afflicted when the Lord seems angry 4. There is a soveraignty in hearing or not hearing of prayer against which we must not strive 1. Sometime the unwritten bill is answered Isa 65. 24. and the Lord yields to our blank papers and subscribes them 2. Some times he hears the dumb mans signs and his breathing instead of his praying Isa 38. 14 20. Lam. 3. 56. Psal 6. 8. Psal 102. 19 20. 3. Sometimes the Lord hears and sends the message of deliverance but we hear not nor doe we know or feel that he hears Psal 18. 4 5 6. compared with ver 16. Dan. 10. 12. one crying for comfort may be heard and not comforted Isa 66. 13 14. As one whom his mother comforts so will I comfort you and ye shall be comforted And when ye see this your heart shall rejoyce and your bones shall flourish like a green herb 5. The clays no and the great Potters ay and vain mans I will and the Almighties I will not are most unsutable Isa 29. 16. Shall the work say of him that made it He made me not or shall the thing framed say of hint that framed it He hath no understanding Rom. 9. 20. Who art thou O man that replyest against God Isa 45. 9. Woe to him that striveth with his Maker Let the potsheard strive with the potsheards of the earth shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it What makest thou or thy work He hath no hands Jer. 18. 6. O house of Israel cannot I doe with you as the potter saith the Lord behold as the clay is in the potters hand so are ye in my hand O house of Israel Humble speaking to God doth well become us Abraham excuses his contrary pleading with God Gen. 18. 27. Behold now I have taken upon me to speak who am but dust and ashes Ver. 30. Oh let not my Lord be angry and I will speak v. 32. Job 42. 3. Therefore have I uttered that I understood not things too wonderful for me that I knew not 3. Beware of murmuring and angry and fretting words against God Exod. 14. 11. Were there no graves in Egypt Exod. 15. 24. Exod. 16. 2. Numb 14. 2 27. and much more It s dreadful to contend with the Almighty and for so small a thing as a drink of water and for a piece of flesh should we fall a pleading with the soveraign Lord 4. Especially we should not counter-work the uncontroulable providence of God for that is to give the Lord battle and to lead an army against him as Isa 9. 10. The bricks are fallen down but we will build them with hewen stones the Sycamores are cut down but we will change them unto Cedars 5. There be divers kinds of striving with the Almighty such are they who blasphemously oppose the shining and convincing power of the Spirit in Christ casting out divels Matth. 12. such are they who gnash with the teeth and spit upon the shining beauty of godliness in Steven Acts 7. and kick against pricks as persecutors doe Acts 9. who if they had the Father and Spirit incarnate as the Son was would crucifie both and would were it in there blasphemous power crucifie the God-head whereas meek yielding to the actings and flowings of the Spirit in others says there must be much of the Spirit there for the Spirit cannot but love the Spirit 6. Despairing stoutly of mercy and the power of grace is of this sort when Cain Judas and others defie Omnipotency and infinite mercy to save them and spitefully hate the influences of saving grace and say mercy cannot save me the compleat ransome of the bloud of God cannot buy me from the second death To this we may reduce a lazie despairing what if I be never saved I can I will doe no more The people are bidden return nay there is no hope say they Jer. 18. 12. but we will walk after our own devices 7. There is here the fainter reproaching of Omnipotency as if God were weary and not able to bring back the captive people Isa 40. 27 28. Hence the Lord must prove his Omnipotency by that rare piece the curtain of Heaven stretched out and a measuring line drawn over the Earth Isa 51. 14 15. Isa 50. 2 2. 8. There is a proud disputing with God when we dare give in a bill against God 1. Ah he takes me for his enemy 2. He hath left off to be gracious An ungracious God is no God O the pride of a tempted mind that dare oppose the very existence of God 3. Some say God hath need to be instructed to govern the world better otherwise what needed
the second death Infants then dying Infants are no debtors to the compleat ransome of blood that Christ gave to deliver them from the wrath And when our Saviour blessed Infants and said Of such is the kingdom of heaven his sense must be that infants departing this life in infancie hold heaven by no Charter of Christ the heir of all are not washed from sin are not delivered from wrath to come nor obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ as it is in 1 Thessal 5. 9. 3. What debt is this who of Angels or men can pay the hire of free love to Christ ye were born beasts Tigers Lions Dogs and broods of Satan and the Serpents seed and Christ hath made you sons of God Kings and Priests to God heirs of life co-heirs with Christ partakers of the divine nature the first-born of God written in heaven 4. Never dream that your own strength or good parts of nature can fit and spiritually capacitate you for receiving influences for spiritual duties nature cannot more prepare it self for grace and a gracious state then a Thistle can change it self into a Vine-tree Christ is good at all indispositions of deadnesse of a natural state whom he quickens that man and he only shall live who can help a dead heart but he that is the resurrection and the life and he who raises the dead only can quicken such dead ones 5. It s a bold and proud Pen that would plead and advocate for such a hellish nature and except Satan and his sons Pelagians what do they but depose Christ from his office of the Physician of sinners and bid him go back to Heaven with his Medicaments of free grace There be here no sick folks free will is strong enough new habits of grace are useless the letter and moral acting of the word can raise dead souls shall we thus requite Christ for his free grace 6. Though there be no merit in diligent seeking and hearing the preached Gospel its good to lie near the fountain for all that as motion begets and augments vital heat and activity to move frequent seeking brings home influences so we are here in using means compare Cant. 3. 1 2 3. with v. 4. and Psal 22. 2. with Psal 18. 6. Gen. 32. 26 27 28. But of this hereafter CHAP. III. The second particular of fetching influences is by supernatural actings by the word and spirit 1. It s a question whether justified ones perform any moral actions without any influence of the habit of grace 1. Some heat and warmness may arise materially from actings in duties though customary formal dead 3. The exercises of spiritual actions are the best preparations for spiritual actions 4. Influences of grace oyl the wheels of the soul for more spiritual acting 5. Natural and literal actings though void of grace because they are some way under the institution of a divine command are nearer to saving actings of grace then the contraries of these actions are 6. A practise of free grace in the Lord is to be differenced from a promise of grace 7. How the Lord is under a necessity of giving influences THere be some actings even in renewed men partly from the Spirit partly from nature custome or formality The question is thus framed because it is a disputable question Whether justified ones doe any actions morally good from an only principle natural without any influence of the indwelling spirit at all since their sins after their being in Christ are not committed with the full bensil of the will for the Spirit in some measure retards and weakens the motion of the flesh Rom. 7. and the habit of sin original is weakned and remitted or slacked in its strength in the regenerate and therefore it would seem if the spirit do weaken retard and blunt the actions of the flesh that far more there is in all moral actions that are good morally some influence of the Spirit less or more So the Question is whether or no the children of God may safely set to work though their actions proceed from conscience natural power custome or a meer office with little influence of habitual grace to works of grace that they may fetch influences of grace 1. It s not unlike it may be so for the godly who went to the morning and evening prayers and sacrifices as is clear Psal 141. 2. Acts 3. 1. Luke 1. 8 9. might go about these duties sometime upon meer custome and the children of God who know their own backdrawing hearts shall not denie this and they may pray from a natural conscience and not so much as is required and otherwise they do mind the duty as an Ordinance of God and yet be inflamed with spiritual duties ere they end this is confirmed by family praying at set times so may a Pastor by necessity of his office preach and pray at the beginning with much deadness and coldness and more then an ordinary straitning of spirit and yet a fire flaught of a heavenly kindling falls upon the spirit before the work be ended Any who believes that the wind blows where it lists and that the influences of the spirit are various as touching their degrees may see the truth of this 2. The children of God appear dead cold and unbelievingly to complain in the beginning of praying and of a Psalm as is clear in David Psal 22. 2. exponing that of him as some verity it hath in some points of him v. 2. and in Ezekiah in his song Isa 39. 10. in Jonah 2. 1 2 3. and in the same David Psal 6. Psal 38. in the Church Psal 77. 1 2 3 4 5 6 c. in the afflicted soul Psal 102. 1 2 3 4. and yet there is confidence of believing triumphing rejoycing in God and praising ere the Prayer and Psalm be ended 3. The prayers of the children of God Psal 22. Ps 6. Ps 38. Psal 116. Habak 1. 12. of Heman Psal 88. of Ezekiah Isa 38. of Jonah c. 2. of Moses Psal c. of the Church Psal 102. Psal 89. hold forth to us admirable variety of up-lifting and down-casting of joy of believing of sinking and doubting of hoping and legal fretting strong ebbing and flowing of faith and fainting of light and darknesse as Psal 22. 2. O my God I cry by day and thou hearest not and in the night season I am not silent yet arising ver 3. But thou art holy O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel Ver. 4. Our father 's trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them c. And again some fainting is in that v. 6. But I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised of the people Ver. 7. All they that see me laugh me to scorn c. At least this might brangle the faith of a sinful man such as David And again there is a rising v. 9 10. But thou art he that took me out of the womb thou didst make
22. Isa 49. 5 6 7 8 9. Psal 89. 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37. 4. The promises of the covenant between the Father and the Son prove the same for if God give many children to Christ and if Christ undertake for these many children to bring them to glory to cast none of them forth but to raise them up at the last day and to lose none of them Then must Christ be Master of their free will and he must have a bar of strong influences on their heart that it shall not be in the power of Satan the world or sinful flesh to pluck them out of his hand Hence against all trepidation of mind this is removed what warrant have we that we can make use of the influences of grace that are in the hands of the Son these are a fowl flying in the wood which we cannot command take these answers 1. What ever Mediatory grace is in the Son they are gracious influences laid by for our good as what sums of money a rich man is to give out for the profit of Minors he mixes it not with his own but looks on it as none of his but to be expended for the good of others and the Minors having assurance of the faithfulnesse and care of their Tutors look upon it as their own we are by faith to look upon the treasury of Christ that is begun to be bestowed on us and that Christ shall not withdraw being a most faithful Tutor what is necessary for our best life 2. Christ being the best of Kings the most faithful of Priests and above all the Prophets Moses and who ever they were by office is to give out influences If we believe that Christ shall acquit himself as a King then shall his subjects find the outlettings of grace for repentance and remission Acts 5. 31. for Christ is worthy of his throue and chair of Princely state We are to believe as our high Priest he shall by vertue of his office apply by the Spirit the bloud of attonement and sprinkle the nations therewith As also when we sin he gives out influences for believing that our Advocate lives and intercedes for us and the acts of opening the heart to believe the Scriptures to be guided in all truth to be comforted and quickned come from Christ the great Prophet and if he be God what the Governour of Heaven and Earth does by his office if he feed all living things the Ravens move not the question what they shall eat to morrow nor the Lillies of the field how they shall be cloathed far more believers are to rest upon this Christ shall fully execute all his offices in all parts towards them 3. The Vine-tree by a flux of nature sends sap to the branches and the head does not deliberate nor interpose freedome of will to send down life and influences of life to the members but nature hath a strong hand in this at least love is soon resolved in the husband what shall be the influences of good communicated by him to the Spouse The great thing Redemption is purchased and will Christ stand and doubt of influences of grace to compleat the Redemption and to make out the life of glory until it come to the fruition and enjoyment thereof CHAP. VI. The two spirits of the world and of God 1 Cor. 2 12. and the differences in order to influences opened 3. The characters of the spirit of God and the relation of the spirit to the word 3. The spirit of Antichrist 4. The more of the spirit the more activity in the ways of God 5. The Spirit of God a praying spirit 6. No praying without the spirit 7. The suspending of influences 8. We are to pray for influences 9. Two-fold power and efficacy 10. The difference betwixt the spirits acting and the literal acting of the word BUt influences of the Spirit are mainly here to be eyed and if any have the spirit he cannot want the influences of God The Spirit is as it were all saving influences and such as are void of the spirit know not any thing of saving influences Yea the Father and the Son let out all their influences in and by the Spirit Therefore to open this consider 1. That there are two sorts 2. The characters and differences of the Spirit of God which speak a spiritual man and spiritual influences 3. What are the divers influences to be taken notice of The two spirits are clear 1 Cor. 2. 12. But we have not received the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God Paul had said that the world and the Princes of the world knew not the mystery of the Gospel why They had not crucified the Lord of glory had they known him As also the spirit teacheth it ver 10. how is that proved from the nature of an infinite spirit that searcheth all the things of the infinite God even as a mans spirit searcheth all the things of a man v. 12. How can we know the things of God they are far above us He answers we who have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit of God doe know the things that are graciously given us of God they know the things of God But v. 12. we are such Q. What is meant by the spirit of the world Ans It s the humane spirit by which we know Arts and Sciences and the things of a present world which is also the Spirit of God and a singular gift of God But there is somewhat more in this spirit a carnal spirit that is opposite to the Spirit that is of God a spirit that judges the depths of Gospel wisedom to be foolishnesse ver 13 14. Hence the differences of the two spirits 1. There are no saving influences due to the spirit of the world The worlds spirit sees the mysteries of Philosophy and Arts and the good things of a present flowing world and no more And as an old man sees all that a child can see and know and much more in a more solid way So the children of God often as Moses Solomon Daniel Paul see with the spirit of the world in this sense all which the men of the world see and in a more spiritual way and beside the Spirit of God in them knows higher things that are hid from the world and their spirit As 1. How Heaven lies how many Summers are in one year in that land 2. The rivers of wine and milk Isa 55. 1. the garden the second Paradise the tree of life that bears twelve manner of fruits every moneth and the leaves serve to heal the Nations and the pure river of water of life clear as chrystal proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. 22. 1 2. Rev. 2. 7. 3. What a plantation is there what streets of gold the rich citizens walk in with their feet Rev. 21. the structure of the new Jerusalem the
forth opposing of the spirit 3. We are to acknowledge and adore the spirit in his actings and joyn hearty consent thereto 4. Self-denial 5. In a bewildered condition to desire to be led by the spirit 6. Spiritual facility in acting 7. To act much in publick works in the spirit 8. Much watching and praying 9. To converse with spiritual men 10. To be much in spiritual conference are all characters of a spiritual disposition THe third particular is what speaks a spiritual man and spiritual influences Ans He who puts himself under the guidance of the spirit is a spiritual man the will of the Guide should be master of the journey The Prophets Acts 13. Paul and Silas Acts 16. Philip Acts 8. accurately observe the command of the spirit as being as binding as the command of the Father and the Son The commands of God to the men of God were more legal in the Old Testament but the commands of the spirit now in the New Testament have more of free grace and perswasive leading Acts 10. 19. Acts 11. 12. Acts 18. 9 10 11. John 14. 16 26. John 16. 13. We shall speak hereafter of the lying under and obedient receiving of the breathings and influences of the spirit only here where there is a strong bensil of will and much freedom in obedience there is much of the spirit backdrawing in spiritual works proclaims much carnality but who had the anointing above measure was all will and all heart and all spirit to obey and suffer John 10. 17 18. Psal 40. 8 9. 2. The leading and drawing of the spirit when it bringeth forth running and is strongly closed with speaks a spiritual man Cant. 1. 4. Psal 119. 32. Cant. 3. 4. I held him and would not let him go Is not this violence sweet feelings and high commending of him follows when the spirits violence in drawing and the spouses violence in running meet there is a spiritual closing Cant. 1. 4. The King hath brought me into his chambers and what follows we will be glad and rejoyce in thee we will remember thy love more then wine See ver 12 13. Cant. 2. 3. I sate down under his shadow and his fruit was sweet in my mouth Delighting in him is followed with his delighting in the Spouse ver 6. His left hand is under mine head and his right hand doth embrace me 2. Here if in any it 's true to him that hath shall be given he that is willing to be led shall be led and keeping of the Commandments of Christ makes room for the Father and the Son to come hither and dwel fire makes more fire 3. A state of translation is to be gone about The man hath not the spirit till he be once over the water translated to the Kingdome of the dear Son of God Christ is not owner of the man that hath not the spirit If any have not the spirit he is none of Christ's Rom. 8. 9. Christ and the Spirit cannot be sever'd the spirit that is in the first heir is in all the rest and we should take it hard to be called or to be none of Christ's 3. Heed must be carefully taken that none of the Organs or parts of the new creation be broken A spiritual man cherisheth the spirit in all his operations he loves and honours his guide and leader The Scripture notes in four words the wrongs we doe to the spirit Isa 63. 10. They vexed his spirit of holiness the word is Psal 56. 6. they painfully wrested as they gave another figure or fashion to my words Ephes 4. 30. Grieve not the holy spirit The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to sadden rather then to anger Matth. 14. 9. Matth. 17. 23. Matth. 26. 22. Can a friend lodge in a house where he is every hour sadned is not this to chase him away and especially to sadden the King in the act of sealing your Writs and Evidences of Heaven is not this dreadful Ye shall know the spirit to be sadned when he acts deadly and lently as the man who rides on a lame and halting horse advances little in the way the fault is not in the Rider So when the man is straitned in praying and he knocks faintly life and liberty and godly boldnesse is away the tools of the worker being broken how unhandsome is the work 2. There should be an eike made to the working of the spirit there is needful a sort of helping of the spirit by widening opening and enlarging the heart the extending of love desires faith fear to their outmost borders there is an opening of the mouth wide commanded Psal 8. 10. Psal 24. 7. Lift up your heads and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors Cant. 5. 2. Open to me my sister my love my dove c. And this is needful under the actings of the spirit that we stretch the soul beyond it self and make an eike to the spirit of his own Hence that charge 1 Thes 5. 19. Quench not the spirit The word is Matth. 12. 20. Matth. 25. 8. Our lamps are out or quenched Mark 9. 44 46. Some cast water upon the fire and holy flamings of the spirit this makes a cold hearth-stone and mightily obstructs the working of God whereas we should adde new fewel to his fire and blow away the ashes and wrestle against deadnesse dulnesse faintnesse and stir up the grace of God 2 Tim. 1. 6. as smiths with the bellows blow up and quicken the flame do not quench it in your self by unbelief and uncheerful walking and break not one another know that so doe the enemies of Christ He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him Let him deliver him since he delighted in him Psal 22. 8. That is to act Satans office when men cast water on the flamings of the spirit and crush the spirit and his actings in others 3. Acknowledge and adore the holy spirit as God and follow not Ananias to play the divel to the Holy Ghost to try if the holy Spirit shall find out hypocrisie Acts 5. Satan is the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 4. 3. who tempted the Son And a man may ride so neer the rotten margin on the bank of a mighty River as he will try the highest of free grace why but I may doe this and be pardoned Nay the holy Spirit never said Sin at will with greediness thou wast once a believer It 's dreadful to put a tryal upon the worth of an infinite ransome 2. Upon the most noble and transcendent actings of the spirit this God hath done in me therefore I have liberty to sin Tempted free grace is a transgression with so loud a cry it s heard all Heaven over 4. Joyn hearty consent to all the actings and influences moral or physical of the Holy Ghost and be not beaten from that There is an anger outed in the Father as the offended Law-giver
pursuing all that are out of Christ Ah who can drink unmixt wrath as Christ did and live and who may stand when he is angry then resisting is terrible 2. There is vengeance in readinesse and grinding of men to powder and everlasting burning for such as so far resist the Son as they say This man shall not reign over us 3. But there is a vengeance beyond a vengeance and fiery indignation and more then an ordinary hell to such as resist the spirit in the Prophets and doe despight to the Spirit of grace Heb. 10. 28 29 30. Matth. 12. 31 32. Killing of the Prophets and slaying of them is a sort of killing of the spirit in men as the Jews killed the Lord of glory in the man Christ wished there were neither in the world God nor the Spirit nor God incarnate and this is just as if men would put hands in so much of God and of the Spirit as they find acting any thing of God in others or themselves this hateful persecuting of godlinesse is the dreadful national sin of this age Find ye not the actings of the spirit sweet and heaven-like if so it speaks a spiritual disposition 4. Much of self-denial speaks much of the spirit he who will be least his own is most God's and partakes most of the divine nature The spirit loves the room of self I live not but Christ by his Spirit lives in me Gal. 2. and the spirit to speak so is the full predominant element in the acting not that nature sinless is wholly dead and passive as Familists and others teaâ—h and self appears to be sunk into nothing and is denyed as Matth. 10. 20. It 's not ye that speak but the spirit of your Father that speaks in you Though they be living persons in their nature and being Peter and John speaks and yet the spirit so discourses and lays aside the creature called self and sets up God that as if self were annihilated and not there at al I mind no Libertine annihilation the spirit as the predominant speaks in the man and acts in him rather then the man And the Spirit of the Father prayeth preacheth reigneth actech disputeth confesseth in the believer 1 Cor. 15. 10. But I laboured more abundantly then they all then must I in Paul be preferred and exalted above John the beloved Disciple and all the eminent Apostles O not I laboured more abundantly yet not I but the grace of God which was with me Acts 6. 10. And they were not able to resist the wisedom and the spirit by which Steven spake He saith not they were not able to resist and dispute against the sinful man Steven Acts 4. 8. Then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost said unto them made answer to the persecuting Rulers this is a far other thing then if he had said then answered Peter the Apostle for Peter was before this filled with the Holy Ghost but now the Holy Ghost in a new fulnesse and flowing of heavenly influences in the man Peter is Master-speaker In the Prophets this is cleer from 2 Pet. 1. 21. Prophecie came not of old by the will of man though the Prophet was not compelled to prophecie nor his will Physically sunken down to nothing but holy men of God spake as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acted by the Holy Ghost 1 Pet. 1. 11. The Spirit of Christ spake in the Prophets before hand of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow Though there be a difference betwixt the speaking of a Prophet and the acting of a believer there is much of self in the Prophets who bite with the teeth and cry peace Micah sets himself against such cap. 3. 8. But truly saith he I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord and of might and of judgement to declare unto Jacob his transgressions and to Israel his sin 3. There is little of self in children the children of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word given to sucking children of two years old Matth 2. 18. Acts 21. 21. are like such as are learning to walk there is little self-wisedom or of self-designes in the motions of young children So doth the spirit act with facility and without resistence in the sons of God Who may not see the colour of self and feel some savour of the creature of self in men O if we could savour in looking speaking acting of the spirit The rivers loths and fountains issue themselves in the Sea and be mixed therewith it s the salt Sea and not the rivers which ebb and flow the under-acting of sinlesse nature in spiritual actings hindereth not the work to be denied of the man and affirmed of the spirit So as we say not the man but rather God in the man acts and speaks Indeed things are not denominate from their externals a vessel of copper washed over with silver or a cup of brasse over-gilded and lustered with gold is not nor is named a vessel of silver or a cup of gold Though we name things by their skin and out-side yet when the hypocrite prays the Lord says the man prays Psal 18. 41. but the Spirit of God prays not in him Nor doth the Lord name Magus a true believer from his profession only the Holy Ghost saith he believed It 's good when the conversation speaks heaven and the spirit is visibly seen acting in the behaviour and walk of men It 's true there is much of renewed self as 1 Cor. 15 9 10. Gal. 2. 20. Rom. 7. 17 22. 1 Cor. 9. 20 21. in spiritual actings and this heightens the excellency of the actions corrupt self renders the act of praying and preaching wider and bigger but not better and excellenter especially in publick renewed self rendereth it excellenter And 5. Not unlike unto that touched before is a character of a spiritual man when the man is spiritually bewildered and doubts of all ways he walks in except the way he is sure to be of God Psal 143. 10. Teach me to doe thy will thy spirit is good lead me into the land of uprightness Hence these three follow 1. The spiritual man doubts of all ways and knows that he is a bewildered and ignorant traveller of himself and knows not by his own light 1. The way 2. The home and lodging Or 3. The guide It saith the spiritual man judgeth the spirit of God a good leader and guide it 's no sophisme à divisis thy spirit is good thou art a leader therefore the spirit is a good leader and guide it 's much to have the faith fixed upon influences of dayly guiding by God 3. It says I am willing to commit my goings to thee Take the guiding of me be father guide leader tutor king to me All these speak spiritual bewilderednesse And those two are well joyned 1. Sense of bewilderednesse and 2. Praying to the one onely guide in heaven and earth Psal 119. 19. I am
a stranger on earth hide not thy Commandments from me The Commandments are the way and a hid and covered way is a misery to a stranger or pilgrim A frequent sight of ignorance and errors and a being in love with the spirits leading is good Though a man could get the work through be it praying hearing reading warring governing eating and drinking yet he is not satisfied with the bulk of the work except the spirit be the doer This gracious spirit looks not so much to praying as to praying in the Holy Ghost nor to hearing as to hearing in the spirit of faith nor to fighting though David be stronger then the enemy except the spirit of the Lord lead the army Psal 60. 1 2 9 10. Psal 140. 7 8. Psal 18. 29 30 31. Nay it 's not enough to eat and drink except the spirit act the man to eat and drink for God Men spend and waste away their actings and call not for the spirit to get them compassed about We are men abundance to build the Temple and mighty Kings favour us and work-men have strength in legs and arms to lay stones in the wall O but that will not doe it Zach. 4. 6. Not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts and so only is the Temple builded 6. There is a spiritual facility in the spiritual actings of a spiritual man 1. The acting is connatural and easie when it comes from an inward principle the stream naturally without violence flows from the fountain and so doth heat from the fire nor is it any pain to the earth to fall down and descend or for the light bodies fire and air to ascend it 's neither toyl nor labour to the Sun to give light for all these come from principles internal There is violence in the motion of an Horologue and therefore the wheels shall be worn out by time but the actings of the spirit are sweet and facile grace makes the Commandments not grievous it s no pain but easie to a gracious pastor to love Christ it breaks neither leg nor arm to desire Christ and be sick for him and to feed his flock for love to the chief shepherd 2. Psal 25. 9. The meek will he guide in judgement the meek will he teach is ways It 's easie for God to guide any man to guide and lead Lions and Unicorns but in the very object there is a facility to counsel a broken and danted spirit If a man be in his flower and prime and rich and mighty healthy and prosperous readily he will doe but what he will but if the man be in chains and broken and meekned with the rod of God he is easily bowed and counselled to what is good as iron red hot will bow and yield to the smitings of the hammer i'ts hard to lead a Lion The Lord speaks like the Lord to Job cap. 39. 9. Will the Vnicorn be willing to serve thee or abide by thy cribs Canst thou bind the Vnicorn with his band in the furrows or will he harrow the valleys after thee but it is easie to bind a lamb Meeknesse is easily led and drawn when the spirit comes in the man is made pliable for counsel he is a plowed and a broken man who saith Acts 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord what wilt thou have me to doe There was no pride in him but the fulnesse of the spirit of the anointing above all his fellows and all mankind who said not my will but thy will be done And if any living man should have had his will or a piece of his will it was a man whose holy will could never crook and it was now when sinlesse holy harmlesse nature was debating the greatest question that ever Heaven or Angels knew But the fulnesse of the spirit bids him quit his will and so he did The sweet passive tractablenesse of the spirit of grace will enjoyn the man to be ranged bridled and led of God there be some whom God can neither lead nor drive any inspiration fals upon him a moral influence this I should and ought to doe but I shall not I will not doe it let God doe his best and it is as if a burning cole were cast into the sea or river will it burn the sea will it be welcomed and received no it s presently quenched An unbroken Tyrant void of the spirit when he heard that charge Let my people goe They are my servants saith the Tyrant not thy people Exod. 5. 2. Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel goe Let his influences be lodged with meeknesse O wrestle not against warnings but yield to them So are all gracious influences sweet delectable and easie is it pain nay its sweet and pleasant for a field of Roses of Vine-trees to receive showers and summer influences from the Sun and Heaven It was sweet for the baptised man Christ to receive and lodge the Holy Ghost who came down in the form of a Dove on him in all his influences 7. To act much in the spirit brings more abundance of the spirit 1. The more publick the work be the more is the man under the spirit Christ must have been under mighty flowings of the spirit who for the publick Catholick duty of redeeming mankind was willing to be suspended from the influences of his personal comfort and to be under that sad cloud of being forsaken of God that God might embrace us It 's the proper work of the spirit to glorifie God John 16. 14. He shall glorifie me saith Christ of the spirit for he shall receive of mine Then the more we glorifie God and Jesus Christ his Son we testifie we partake the more of the flowings of the spirit The Church hath so much the more of the spirit that she is willing to bear the Lord's indignation because she hath sinned Mic. 7. 9. and bear publick sufferings to illustrate the glory of his justice 2 We are also with Magdalen and other godly persons so far to be dead to the private comforts of love to Christ and his presence and waiting about the grave to anoint his body that we are to wait upon the more publick duties of resting in and of sanctifying of the Sabbath though otherwise the rescuing of the life of an oxe be mercy above this sacrifice If we have much of the spirit we shall patiently submit to the Lord's dispensation of his soveraign withdrawing of influences of comfort yea and delight in other inferior duties What though he will not feast me with the apples of the tree of life and suspend his comforts what if he withdraw joyful influences of believing of glorying and rejoycing in the Lord and feed the poor sinner with absence and exercise him with sad desertions 3. It 's a spiritual condition when Christ casts in feelings and discernable motions of the spirit and not only knocks but Cant. 5. 2 4.
puts in his hand by the hole of the door if this follow my bowels were moved for him And it 's a spiritual condition when the soul fails and the spouse falls a swoon at these words Open to me my sister my love c. Cant. 5. 2 6. And these lesser feelings would be turned into consent and into fixed resolutions as the spouse I opened to my welbeloved I sought him but I found him not I called him but he answered me not And that came from the feeling of his hand put in by the hole of the door ver 4. compared with ver 6. For that word Quench not the spirit 1 Thes 5. 19. includes an affirmative that is cherish kindly and yield sweetly unto the flowings and sweet influences of the spirit 8. A watching condition is a spiritual condition The Spirit of God is much seen in keeping the soul watching Ephes 6. 18. Praying with all prayer and supplication in the spirit is joyned with watching For it 's added and watching thereunto with all perseverance and Jude conjoynes praying in the Holy Ghost with ver 21. looking for or watching after the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life The spirit is willing Matth. 26. 4. forward watchful so is the â—enewed part but the flesh is weak sleepy and lazy And as much as the man hath of the spirit so much holy watchfulnesse hath he and Matth. 25. 26. the evil servant that digged his Masters talent in the earth is called wicked and slothful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sleepy in opposition to the watching and painful servant who ver 20. gained five talents to five talents Drowziness counter-works the knocking 's and gracious influences of the Spirit of Christ's calling Cant. 5. and answers Christ's piercing words Open to me my sister my love c. with a carnal excuse from drowzinesse it 's not time of night for Christ to seek lodging I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Cant. 5. 3. The flesh is a sleeping thing and a dead were we more diligent and painful we might be richer lesser motions closed with become the seed of larger motions The moving of the bowels at Christ's spiritual stirrings that he makes upon the heart grows to this I rose to open to my welbeloved Watching guards against sleeping and watchfulnesse puts the soul upon a resolution to watch sleeping guards no more against watching then then the privation fences off the habit or doth set a man to work against life We sit not watchfully upon the motions of the spirit to warm them and to draw life out of them as the Hen by careful sitting upon dead Eggs bringeth forth living birds Who would think a tree and a huge tree can come from a sorry plant or sixty or an hundred grains of wheat in harvest to be in one single grain cast in the earth in sowing time Can the flesh wait for the Lord is not hope an act of life Yea it 's lively hope opposite to a dead and rotten hope and waking is nearer to life and influences of life then sleeping which is the death of the man as touching the exercise of the sensitive life Then since the spirit is a spirit of life and a quickning and living spirit Rom. 8. 1 Cor. 15. the more watchfulnesse in any the more of the spirit For when the spirit enters in the dry bones they become an army of living men whereas before they were farther from life and spirit then sleeping bones Let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober For they that sleep sleep in the night 2 Thes 5. 6 7. The night is far spent let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkennesse not in chambering and wantonnesse nor in strife and in envying Rom. 13. 13. This is like the putting on of the Lord Jesus which is a work of the spirit for sleeping men put not on their garments Ministers especially are to watch yea to watch in all things then in sleeping they must watch 2 Tim. 4. 5. And hardly can fighting and enduring hardnesse as a good souldier of Jesus Christ commended to the Minister 1 Tim. 6. 12. 2 Tim. 2. 3. consist with sleeping if we know how near Satan the roaring Lion who sleeps not is to our quarters and camp 1 Pet. 5. 8. Who can sleep and be secure and resist Satan or stand against him stedfast and fixed in the faith ver 9. Christ is much upon this by Matthew Marke and Luke Watch Watch and pray and lest it slip them again I say to you Watch Matth. 26. 38 40 45. Matth. 24. 42. Matth. 25. 13. Mark 13. 23. Mark 14. 38. Luke 17. 26 27 c. Luke 21. 8 38. cap. 2. 2 46. How can sleeping men receive influences of grace doth the Lord cast influences upon sleeping mens bosomes So are we to act as our acting way be fathered on the spirit as the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon upon Sampson and they fight and the Spirit of the Lord upon Zechariah the son of Jehojadah and he prophecied 2 Chro. 24. 20. Luke 1. 64. the father of John Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophecied Simeon came by the spirit into the Temple This acting in the spirit is opposed to acting in the flesh and in the spirit of Satan as Bullinger of one brother who slew his brother and pretended the spirit and Pareus tels us the like As the Lord the Father and Son never spake to Abraham Moses to Patriarks or Prophets but he made them know it was the Lord so neither does the spirit act in any though the way seem violent as in Phineas and Samuel their executing of justice but the Spirit makes it known that it is the Spirit and that he is not in the mighty wind nor in the fire but in the calm voice So Samuel leisurely and advisedly convinceth Agag ere he kill him and gives a reason to his conscience from divine justice 1 Sam. 35. 32 33. though Samuel then had laid down the sword It 's an useful word Jude 20. Praying in the Holy Ghost and Ephes 6. 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit What is there a praying in the flesh yea if preaching may be from a principle of the flesh out of envy and strife Phil. 1. 15. so may praying be from some rotten principle of fleshly presumption Lord Lord open to us Which us to us workers of iniquity Matth. 25. 11. Luke 13. 25 26. And 2. some prayer flows from fleshly despair and not from the spirit Rev. 6. 16. Mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne And 3. The enemies of David cry to the Lord out of fleshly fear and unbelief not in the spirit Psal 18. 41. There is a praying out of deadness and from the flesh
rejoyce and blossome as a rose 5. The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the eares of the deaf shall be unstopped 6. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumb sing for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desart 7. And the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs of waters in the habitation of dragons where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes And that all this is a prophecie of showres of influences of grace upon the holy people under the New Testament is clear v. 8. And an high-way shall be there and a way and it shall be called the way of holiness the unclean shall not pass over it but it shall be for those the way faring men though fools shall not erre therein 9. No lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast shall goe up thereupon it shall not be found there but the redeemed shall walk there Were all the stones and rocks of a a Land turned into gold it should prove that the Sun had most strong influences on that land The stony hearts under the New Testament are changed into new hearts Ezek. 36. 26. and a people of hard mettal of iron and stone transformed into precious stones Carbuncles Agats Saphires and that made true All thy children shall be taught of God Isa 55. 11 12. This doth evince that the influences of God shall be mighty in those who believe under the New Testament even the exceeding greatness of his power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places Such things say that such as live under the Gospel would say what a change is made in them The Gospel finds you stones and iron and leaves you stones and iron O but that is sweet Christ found me clay and now I am gold as the man John 9. 25. One thing I know that where I was blind now I see 1 Tim. 1. 13. Once I was a blasphemer a persecutor an injurious person but I obtained mercy Ah it 's a hard condition born an heir of wrath dying worse then an heir of wrath for sin original and the habit of wickedness was but a little brook when the reprobate man was born but when he dies it 's a mighty river and a great sea What hath the Gospel done to you It 's more then the power of the Sun it 's a strong influence of God the first cause that makes clay gold and common earth silver and copper and brass Many cannot tell where Christ found them and where they are now 2. If there be such summer-showres of heavenly influences under Christ how is our fleece dry And many are rained upon green and the bones flourishing like an herb and a lilly and thou art dry This is not seen prophaneness is exceeding prophane and is twice yea seven times prophaneness under Gospel-influences The Gospel-devil is fiercer and more a devil to speak so then the Indian devil O but the Gospel makes a sad eik to wickedness Gospel-swearing Gospel-whoring Gospel-drunkenness are worse then Sodoms filthiness Matth. 10. 15. There is an unperceived vengeance that cleaves to every Judas the man who is long in Christs company and sees and heares what Christ does and what he sayes his traitory is twice yea seven times traitory Spilt and rotten wine is a worse liquor then fountain-water some water is better then some wine 3. How blessed then is that this man and this man was born in Sion To be born and dwell in a Land where Christ dwells speaks mercy To be a plant of a young Vine where the garden of red wine is must be a mercy to be a plot of ground that Christ plows to be a branch that the Father of Christ purges that it may bring forth more fruit is an incomparable mercy You might have been born in China in America in Brasilia where Satan dwels but ye were born in a land of Vine-trees and Olive-trees To be born in the Church though men despise it and in covenant with God and to be baptized is to be born in Paradise in the borders of heaven for there is the Gospel and the Prince who both can promise and give Heaven 6. Divis Some are influences for the habit others for the act of grace Influences for the habit as Isa 44. 3. I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring A land that raines showres of rain and milk and raines down showres of glory and grace must be the glory of all lands and it must needs be an excellent and a glorious Sun that shines upon that land 2. There are influences for heavenly dispositions Christ speaks and opens the Scriptures to them and their hearts burn within them Luke 24. 32. Every word of Christ casts in a fiery coal of love Every fitting down under the Apple-tree brings sweetness he hath influences by which he brings on love-sickness Cant. 5. 7 8. Christ casteth in a praying disposition on Saul Behold he prayes Acts 8. and casts in a mourning disposition on the woman that washed his feet with teares and a disposition of love she loved much so she weeped over Christs feet and kissed them and wiped them with the hair of her head He cast in a hearing disposition in Mary Luke 10. A love-sickness after Christ in the Spouse Cant. 2. a mourning disposition on Peter he weeps bitterly 3. There are influences by which Christ acts in us and the spirit acts in us to will and to doe Phil. 2. 13. and the spirit groanes and prayes in the Saints Rom. 8. 26. Christ by his influences makes some one new work or other what he hath done in you Are ye a dry Eunuch and the heath in the wilderness and are ye the dried up fig-tree and withered up by the root neither leaves nor fruit God will blast brambles and cast them over the hedge and deny Sun and rain to them Some there be on whom Christ never acted as Christ they are in the shadow all their life and never saw nor felt the Sun 7. Divis There be some influences proper to the head Christ some peculiar to the members O what rare actings upon the Son Psal 45. 2. Grace is poured in thy lips v. 7. God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness Isa 61. 1. 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 to proclame liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound 2. To proclame the acceptable year of the Lord. In which words are holden forth the influences of the Lord in their fulness the anointing of the spirit of the
the influence by which David should have been guarded against the tempration to adultery and murder the Lord may withdraw such influences that the fallen Saints may know that they stand by grace and therefore from the Lords withdrawings hic nunc let us not conclude we are out of Christ yet we are not to be slack but in trembling and godly fear to keep near to Christ and censure not the Lord for withdrawing of his influences since he stands obliged by his holy covenant not to deny the substantial and fundamental influences by which we shall be saved and persevere to the end 9. Divis There be some influences in which the Lord concurrs with the actings of saving grace as of faith love hope and other influences in which the Lord concurres with the actings of a meer gift or other principles possibly the flesh custome c. and it were good to know the difference betwixt the one and the other Psal 57. 8. Awake my glory awake psaltery and harp and so he speaks to the gift of musick to awake and be concurrent in the praising of God and stirs up the grace of God in himself to praise when he sayes I my self will awake early he teacheth that gift and grace should concur and be stirred up in spiritual duties of praying and praising hence how we may know when we act from a gift and when we act from saving grace these Assertions following Assert 1. Some sinful sleepiness of the flesh may concur in both the acting of the gift and of the grace for David bidding both his harp and so the gift of musick awake and himself awake teacheth some sinful dulness was upon both one and the other So when David excites his soul and all that is within him to bless the Lord Psal 103. 1. he insinuates that in praising of God fleshly dulness may come upon all that is within him both the powers of the soul and the habit of grace and gift and the skill of singing it 's much to get the fountain made clean in our actings 2. How condescending is his mercy who denies not his influences of grace to us though the flesh be acting often and retarding the spirit in our actings Assert 2. We are to take heed that we knock not at the wrong door we may pray and preach from a gift of praying and humane eloquence and a civilized and well-skilled fancy and a literal mind versed in the letter of the Scripture when we think that we are praying from the spirit of adoption and the gracious habit of praying So the like may be said of Preaching and singing praises how many prophecied and cast out Devils from a meer gift and die in that deluded condition and are possessed with that habitual mistake which is never tried that they prophecied and cast out Devils from a sanctified principle read Matth. 7. 22 23 24. Luke 13. 25. Matth. 25. 11 12. If any say May not sound believers also blow at the wrong harthstone and think the like Answ There may be a particular mistake in this or that act but not an habitual deluded condition all their life as sometimes the believer may pray from meer custome when there is little stirring of the spirit Assert 3. It 's not enough to doe the same that heathens doe for if ye love them that love you what reward have ye and if ye salute your brethren only not your enemies also what do ye more then others So Christ Matth. 5. to the multitude and to the disciples Matth. 5. 1 46. Believers then should not stint themselves to only publicans and heathens duties Samuel speaks as a man as Samuel when he calls Eliah the Lords anointed 1 Sam. 16. and supposeth that he speaks as a Prophet so doth Nathan 1 Sam. 16. 6 7. 2 Sam. 7. 3. There is a vast difference betwixt thus saith the Prophet by the Lord and thus saith the man and therefore where are we when our righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees The devils believe there is one God and they doe well James 2. 19. and we fooles say in our hearts there is no God Psal 14. 1. and do we well in so saying The devils do tremble when they believe there is one God ah Satan believes in sad earnest when he believes We sport yea doe not we laugh and mock at a Godhead or at the word of a hell The faith conveyed with godly trembling were good Ah that we know not the influences of God conjoyned with the out-lettings of a gift and of a temporary faith and the influences that goe along with the out-letting of saving grace as touching the matter Assert 4. Hardly can the use of a gift ascend above it self to intend God and his glory for the glory of God is graces end not gifts end Zech. 7. 5. When ye fasted did ye at all fast unto me 6. And when ye did eat and when ye did drink did ye not eat for your selves and did not ye drink for your selves Heb. did not ye your selves eat as carnal men did ye not eat and drink and feast and fast He meanes the spirit of grace in them did not keep these religious fasts and feasts but their own spirit and custome and self and did ye fast for me at all and he doubles the word that so he may the more convince them even for me So the Lord might say to the Pharisees who prayed in the streets Did ye at all pray to me even to me or did the gift and vain-glory in you or the spirit in you So he may say to us Doe ye preach hear swear a covenant for me at all Saving grace must sanctifie the gift in its use and end that it be for God but a gift can never sanctifie saving grace in its use and end As grace which is above nature sanctifies nature and heightens nature in its actings principles and end but nature that is below grace can never sanctisie and heighten grace in its actings principles and ends Assert 5. The same sun the same air and heaven send the same influences on the true and natural olive and on the wild olive the same clouds and rain act upon the vine-tree and the thorn-tree upon the rose and the briar and the nettle and so the same word comes to the ears of both elect and reprobate but not the same quickning influences of grace upon both Saul governes and leads the Armies of the Lord by a gift and David governes feeds and leads the Armies of the Lord by the grace of God and the same word of command layes an obligation upon both false Apostles preach Christ from a gift and labour by a gift but Paul labours not as Paul but the grace of God in him The virgins are drawn and run Cant. 1. and John is drawn and runneth but the same lively influences act not upon the one and other it is
a deluding conclusion we have eaten and drunken where Christ was present and his Saints present therefore the Lord should open to us and Christ hath preached and his faithful Prophets in our hearing in our streets therefore should we be admitted into the Bridegroomes chamber Luke 13. 25. What can then be builded on this I was at the Lords Supper where undoubtedly Christ was in his influences of life I did swear a covenant to God I preached the Gospel I heard ordinarily such a Preacher in whom undeniably the Spirit of God spoke and was intimately acquainted with him and loved him dearly and shall that man be saved and I thrust in hell The great errour is men try not their wayes principles motives and ends Now as touching influences of grace it is not as when the same hand smites upon the string of the harp well tuned and on another string of the harp that is mistuned it 's the same word that sounds in the ears of these in the visible Church but not the same spirit of grace in the same saving influences that act upon the heart yea the spirit leaves the heart of some to its own deadness and acts upon others to bring them to wonder to be amazed and astonished and leaves them there and acts upon a third sort to leave a strong conviction and a work of humiliation upon them but it does no good it 's nothing above a law-work mixt with some letter of the Gospel and the Spirit works in some a lively sound work of saving grace and the same word is the common instrument in all So our Saviours enumeration of four sorts of hearers takes in all Matth. 13. How many wonder and despise and persecute Luke 4. Mark 7. Mark 9. Matth. 12. John 11. Acts 3. Acts 4 c. 2. Influences of the spirit saving and lively are called by the names of the Fathers drawing of the Bridegroomes drawing John 6. 44. Cant. 1. 4. the Spirits leading Rom. 8. 14. the Lords teaching Isa 54. 13. John 6. 45. the blowing and breathing of the wind upon the garden Cant. 4. 16. the Lords quickening in his way Psal 119. 37. the Lords circumcising of the heart Deu. 30. 6. the Lords opening of the heart Acts 16. 14. the Lords instructing and speaking to men with a strong hand Isa 8. 11. the Lords power in believers not inferior to that by which he raised his Son from the dead and quickens the dead that are in the graves Eph. 1. 18 19 20. Joh. 5. 25. But no such showres of influences go along with a meer gift which is eminent in many exercised to the ful to the good of the Church yet such builders of the ark for saving of others perish themselves in the waters 3. If we consider the Lords intention this is clear Did ever the Lord decree or promise to bring any to heaven by the gift of prophecie of wisedome of learning and arts whether the men believe or not or does the husbandman so labour the ground for the growing of the bramble as for the growing and flourishing of the vine-tree or for the thistle and the briar as for the wheat What can Christ make out of a preaching Judas never given to him of the Father nothing he never believing but to send him to his place Assert 6. In one and the same spiritual acting of praying and believing the spirit and the flesh may concurre not as formal principles for the flesh and corrupt nature is no formal principle of praying in the spirit and of believing the holy Ghost useth no such tooles but the flesh concurres by way of retarding and weakening of the acts of praying for it is of the flesh onely that our praying is not with that deepness of humble sense of want with that strong desire with that fervour of believing that becomes So corruption concurs in the worke as the broken thigh or legge in the halting horse as halfe a tooth in eating not as a formal principle of motion Hence the influences of grace must be accommodate to our gracious actings that are mixt he is a meek Spirit who is willing to sigh in a Saint beside the body of sin which casts in something of our sinfull corruption to retard the work 2. In the same prayer the spirit and the flesh speak at once or by turnes Jer. 15. 15. prayes in the spirit O Lord thou knowest me remember me and visit me and revenge me of my persecuters take me not away in thy long-suffering know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke 16. Thy words weâ—e found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoycing of my heart But in the same prayer the spirit in his suspended influences as it were resting lies by and the flesh mixes in it self v. 18. Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable which refuseth to be healed wilt thou be altogether to me as a lyar and as waters that fail Calvin saith we must distinguish betwixt the doctrine yea I adde the prayer that is from the spirit and the sinful complaint in the prayer from the flesh So Job complains spiritually 10. he acknowledgeth and adoreth the power of God which poured him out as milk and crudled him like cheese cloathed him with skin and flesh and fenced him with bones and sinews and gave him life and favour v. 9 10 11 12. Yet the flesh almost casts all down and makes him to lose his thanks v. 18. Wherefore hast thou saith he brought me forth out of the womb O that I had given up the ghost and no eye had seen me Compare Jobs sad complaint with his triumphing faith in looking through so many hundred years to his living Redeemer and Kinsman who shall stand the last man upon the earth v. 25 26. Then are we taught to difference betwixt influences from our sinful flesh and his holy Spirit and to beware of mixing our clay with the Lords pure fountain actings of his Spirit and not to adulterate and vitiate his wine with our rotten water It looked like the zeal of God in the disciples to desire to call for fire from heaven to burn the Samaritans old and young it was a cruel end merciless thing to refuse Christ and his disciples lodging O but saith Christ rebuking them Luke 9. 55. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of Pray that God would rebuke the flesh while ye pray and try your own spirit and take heed to it 2. Rest not on a gift nor upon the literal stirring and bastard heat that comes from a gift or upon literal tears that often flow from a weakened fancy in prayer Esau both runs and was hot in his hunting for the blessing and sought the blessing with teares but there were here no influences of the spirit of grace Esau Heb. 12. was a prophane man Assert 7. It may be a child of God may be deluded in a particular thinking
been strong influences of grace when they refused deliverance and believed a better resurrection Heb. 11. 35. 2. When there is a strong habit of love and of soul-love to Christ there are strong and painful acts of diligent seeking as Cant. 3. There be three acts of seeking and not finding 1. In the bed 2. About the streets and the broad way 3. At the watchmen and yet no giving over until she find him whom her soul loves Cant. 3. 1 2 3 4. The habit of love even going on to love-sicknesse produces strong praying fervent adjuring of the daughters of Jerusalem to tel Christ that she is sick of love for him and a most pathetick song of praising of Christ in all his excellencies Cant. 5. 10. My beloved is white and ruddy and the chief among ten thousand v. 11. His head is as the most gold his locks are bushy and black as a raven 12. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of water c. And there must be strong love within when such high expressions came out Psal 42. 1. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God v. 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God Psal 84. 2. My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth shouteth aloud out for the living God Now answerable to these must be the actual breathings of God strong impressions even until the soul be like the thirsty ground like the chased hart dying swooning and fainting and in a fever of love-sickness for Christ all which argue there must be valid and mighty influences upon the soul Ah little of the love of Christ is a feast that soon fills and satisfies us Dry faint and dead acts of praying and seeking speak weak influences and coldness of indifferency whether we have Christ or want him CHAP. III. A supernatural habit is a seed of influences 2. We are to improve the habit of grace 3. The habit of grace in order to the three persons brings a necessitie of gracious influences 4. The Lord is under divers necessities to confer influences 5. Christ intercedes for the non-converted 6. Christs Office 7. The Spirits office put both under a necessity of conferring of influences 8. Divers uses result from the necessity that the Lord hath brought himself under to confer influences 9. How the habit of grace is acted upon how it ceaseth not AS to natural powers the God of nature hath prepared influences to seeds and plants apt to grow There are prepared of God also influences for their actual growing So to the Sun fire clouds he hath in readinesse such influences though he freely let them out so to supernatural powers and habits he must let out and prepare supernatural influences The habit of grace is a sort of new nature a heavenly power a kind of seed of spiritual actings and a weight that inclines the soul to acting and by a sort of a pleasantly refreshing disposition swayes and drawes habitually the man to supernatural acting In nature suitable influences are due to the powers as the habit of musick inclines the man to singing and a natural instinct draws the bird to build its nest and the Lord hath ordained suitable influences for this instinct so this habit of grace as a weight inclines the soul to act not by any necessity of exercise but by necessity of specification it inclines not by determining to the act but only habitually Therefore influences suitable to this habit must be some way due as in nature so also in grace A habit of grace in the renewed man does not determine him continually to pray believe praise God while the habit is in him Hence 1. Because corruption is in David though as a broken and subdued habit he sins in numbring the people he is violently carried to be avenged on Nabal he commits adultery and murther which doe weaken the habit of grace 2. If the habit of grace be strong and much of the fulness of God in Steven in John Baptist in Paul they act in the way of God accordingly 3. If the habit of grace be qualified with a super-added disposition heavenly and spiritual there are boylings and stirrings in the heart as in Paul to pray Acts 20. after the spirit in him hath been graciously and heavenly exhorting the Church of Ephesus he kneels down and prayes and Acts 17. 16. while he is waiting for Silas and Timothy there is upon his mind a burning fever when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry And there will be some sweet akings and gnawings of the heart pressing the man to pray praise and sing Psal 57. 7. My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise 2. What are we to doe in such a case then Answ We are to pursue these warmings and flamings of the habits of grace with new spiritual actings and exercises of grace as David verse 8. Awake up my glory awake Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake early And therefore know 2. That a kindled habit of grace qualified with an heavenly disposition of grace is a fire near the flaming and the call of God to you to pray hic nunc Besides the command of God for praying continually smite the iron while it is hot throw the rod while it is green sail while the Lords wind and tide doth call stir up and blow upon the grace of God in you happily we blow upon the gift of praying when we should stir up the grace of praying Yea 3. Suppose the habit of grace were not kindled or in any near disposition to flame but there were deadness on the soul and the habit of grace lying deadned and covered with ashes yet is there warrant to blow aside the ashes to stir the fire and to smite upon the flint seven times until it cast fire David Psal 42. and Psal 43. three times Ps 42. 11. and Ps 43. 5. chides his casten down and unbelieving soul and wakens up and puts upon the habit of faith and Psal 103. and Psal 104. four times he wakens up his soul to bless the Lord and all that is within him to praise the Lord Psal 1â—6 7. he charges his soul to return to its rest It is dreadful to smother and bear down these births of God and to blast and wither such buddings of the Spirit and also to yield to carnal deadness and to lie down under it but let us await at the pool and when the Angel comes down and troubles the water step in and be healed As the Martyr condemned to die was under great deadness of spirit when he was in the prison and going to the place of execution yet coming to the place a gale of the wind of the Spirit blew fair and he cryed out to his Christian friends to whom he made known his former deadness now he is come he is come
lodging to the spirit to breath in Let nature stir first in the using of means First bow the knee stretch out the hands should the Spirit from above first bow the knee and first physically act upon the hands to lift them up nay nature begins in its order before the heat and fire of the spirit come flaming goes not before smoking but contrarily smoking leads the way to flaming the flaming of faith of love of paining desires in their spiritual vigour go not before stirring of the lips and lifting of the eyes to Heaven to pray that is no more true then refreshing and cooling of the heart go before eating and drinking will ye say I will not pray while first the spirit flame I will not hear while first I believe and I will not lay up the promises in the heart while first the heart burns in heat of love with the promises You then say I will not throw about the key until the door be first opened I will not hear the word until the Lord give me faith whereas the way of God is that faith as the end comes by hearing as the means leading to the end Rom. 10. and Gal. 3. Ye received the Spirit by the hearing of faith then of necessity our hearing and lending attention to Christ by the outer entry the ear must go before faith as the mean before the end whereas faith comes by hearing as vital heat is stirred up by running so it is true some inward burnings and flamings of spirit begin like smoking before flaming Psal 39. 1. Psal 45. 1. Acts 17. and then follows spiritual acting of praising preaching praying in which case there is as it were in the soul a fever and an inward boyling of a pot that must run over or new wine that must break the vessel and force vent so that silence or no acting must torment and pain the poor man but that is not ordinary for the set way is that we set to acting and the spirit strikes in as he thinks fit and the believer is to blow and stir the fire under the ashes as if he were seeking the wind and must stir and dig some fire and warmnesse out of the letter and let the spirit blow and flame as he will If any say a preparing of the heart goes well before acting that is true also if any say God commands not simple hearing but hearing mixt with faith what ever truth were in that as hearing without faith is sinful formality yet he commands in a divine order that we should hear to the end we may believe and the Lord commands not that we may believe that we may hear as nature ordains not growing and nourishing that the living creature may eat and sleep but by the contrary nature appointeth eating and sleeping that we may grow and be nourished If any say the Lord commands not hearing as to the substance of the act but saving spiritual and humble trembling at the Word and hearing in faith and this he commands to be done in believing and trembling at the Word in the same act in which he commands hearing It shall be denyed that in the order of begetting faith this is necessary that they ever be on and the same act the Lord preached to Adam Gen. 3. 15. the seed of the woman shall break the head of the serpent Adam by the Law of God of nature was first to hear and consider this first Gospel-truth and then to believe it and receive it in faith he was a rational and moral agent in believing and was not obliged in one and the same to hear and believe but as a rational agent he was first to hear and then to believe after consideration of the Gospel now heard and received in the ear and mind And the like may be said of Pagans at the first hearing of the Gospel they must hear and literally consider the letter of the Gospel before they believe As for the Lord 's commanding to believe to pray to read to praise sure we are to begin our duty of natural stirring in these acts though in another kind of cause God must first act us thereunto nor is the Lord 's stirâ—ing of us by omnipotent grace enjoyned to us but we are commanded to doe our duty and to pray for his drawing that we may run but yet by order of nature we are to doe our parts first in our physical way before we feel the stirring of divine influences Obj. He cannot pray he cannot believe and yet God commands him to believe Answ But his cannot as Mr. Fenner saith does not hinder If a wicked mans cannot only did hinder him he might excuse himself before the tribunal of Christ Lord thou knowest I did my best I would have been ruled by thy Word but I could not I would have been humbled and reformed better then I was but I could not For the culpable only hindering cause is Prov. 1. 29. They hated knowledge the fear of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they chused not They would none of my counsel they despised all my rebuke These four acts of wicked will are set down as the only faulty cause of their non-conversion and their not hearkning to wisedoms cry But if God had given efficacious grace which he out of his absolute liberty denyed certainly they would have been converted true and who denyes that All that have heard and learned of the Father come to me John 6. 45. If all such come and none miscarry then thou would have come also to Christ Surely after I was turned I repented Jer. 31. 19. but that is the cause of non-conversion physical and leaves not the blame on the holy Lord for the wicked will not yet remains and the conscience lays not the blame there but loves to have a physical bar of non-conversion to block up the way of moral non-conversion and four times subscribeth and consenteth to the absence and want of the Lord 's saving influence therefore except the unbeliever could say I had a desire hic nunc to abandon my lusts and to believe only this hinders God refâ—sed the sowing of a gracious power in me to believe pray repent and as an austere master he reaps and exacts believing and praying from a man who doth his best and all that in reason and justice can be craved of a man lays upon me threatnings commandments punishments who am only fettered against my will from obeying Hence faithful Mr. Fenner pag. 8. the moral and faulty reason why the wicked do not repent and come out of their sins is not because they cannot though they cannot but because they will not His reasons are 1. The wicked think they have power and yet they will not doe according to their thoughts what is the reason they hope to repent on their dead beds but because they think they have power or at least they are able to beg power of Jesus Christ Now by their
meet with the Lord 's wrathful rebuke then with his softening and pitying mercy CHAP. II. The Lord keeps an order in sending influences 2. He maketh short work on some 3. There is a confluence of influences at one time and in one work 4. Despising of the Word 5. Refusing of Ordinances 6. Persecuting of the Prophets 7. Resisting of the operations of the spirit do all obstruct influences 8. Praying and praising promove influences 9. Hardening of the heart 10. Not profiting by means 11. Remaining in nature 12. Actings in wrath rancor malice bitternesse and inordinate passion obstruct influences 13. Keep the oyl of the spirit clean if ye would have influences 14. We are to act morally and physically with the spirit 15. Prayers obstruct not soveraigntys acting THe Lord 's ordinary way of working is here to be observing the spirit confers not upon Peter's hearers Acts 2. influences of faith and of gladly receiving of the word v. 41. at the first before he bestow influences to the pricking of the heart for sin v. 37. nor does the spirit act upon Saul Acts 9. and the Jayler Acts 16. for their rejoycing in the Holy Ghost and believing and applying Christ and the promises at the first until first a law-law-spirit humble and make the proud to tremble Then the spirit must use divers instruments and shoot arrowes and influences of law and wrath and wound the heart with arrows of love as the Artist the Carpenter useth sundry tools according to the diversity of timber that he works on and the Lord here accommodates his influences according to the nature of the soyl It 's like Christs spirit made shorter and more expedite work on the hearts of James John for when Christ said unto them Follow me Matth. 4. 19 22. they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 straigthway or immediately leave their nets and their father and follow him It 's as little time betwixt Christs word to the man sick of the palsie Arise take up thy bed and walk and his walking Mark 2. 12. for immediately 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he took up his bed and went forth before them all It 's like Matthew's conversion is of the same nature Matth. 9. 9. Luke 5. 27 28. in which the Lord gives proof that as some Castles fall at the first shooting of the Canon so there is no standing out nor resisting of Christ for when he adds strength of omnipotency the work of humiliation of conviction of saving faith or repenting are all quickly done as if tilling sowing and harvest were all in one day or one hour 2. We see also that gracious influences are threeded as it were upon gracious influences every beating of the smiths hammer brings forth at once many sparkles of fire and a shour of rain is the falling of millions and hosts of drops of rain at once So in fervent prayer there must be a cluster of gracious influences in every sigh and groan there is an acting of the spirit Rom. 8. 26. The work of the spirit must be maimed imperfect if godly watching 2. Prayer 3 Fervent desire 4. Humble sense of unworthiness 5. Faith on the promise 6. Love to our Father have not every one their several influences of grace When the seven stars arise above the Horizon if six ascend the seventh must also ascend in all which the poor sinner is far below the influences of grace they are sent out as soveraignty thinks fit and here the Lord rains down showrs of grace and a showre is made up of a multitude of drops yet in the general may sinners counter-work and restrain as it were the influences of grace they may resist the word Zech. 7. 12. They made their hearts like an Adamant stone lest they should hear the Law Now the Lord cannot give influences out with the preached word where men turn away their ears from the Law Prov. 28. 9. and Act. 7. 57. they stop their ears Wicked men cannot be avenged on the Spirit in his person or in his several operations of saving grace yet they avenge themselves on the message and break in pieces the chariot that carries the Spirits operations and trample upon his word be in love with the word to count it your heritage Sweeter then the honey and the honey-comb and you as David upon suit shall have influences to be kept from presumptuous sins Psal 19. 7 8 9. compared with v. 13. and Psalm 119. 40. Behold I have longed after thy precepts therefore Quicken me in thy righteousness 2. Men can refuse to come and partake of Ordinances and to be Baptized as the Pharisees do Luke 7. 29 30. and so reject the counsel of God and refusing to be among the golden Candlesticks and the Assembly of his Saints comes neer to trampling on the blood of the Covenant doing despite to the Spirit of grace Heb. 10. 25 26 29. Rejoyce to stand within Jerusalem Psal 122. for the Church is his vineyard love a room in his Church for it lies neer to the Sun and is under the watering and showres of grace So Christ speaks to the Spirit Cant. 4. 16. Awake O North-wind and come thou South blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out So there is a commission given that the Spirit in its efficacy blow upon the plants and flowers that grow there the Church is also his garden of red wine which he waters every moment Isa 27. 3. Acts 7. 51. Ye do alway resist the holy Ghost then must they obstruct the gracious actings of the holy Ghost this proves it to be true that Steven said that they resisted the holy Ghost Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of that just one of whom ye are murtherers saith he they who cast down the lodging they injure the indweller the godly prophet is the house and lodging of the holy Ghost 2 Chro. 36. 12. Zedekiah humbled not himself before Jeremiah the Prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. Now the Spirit acted on the Prophets when they spoke 2 Pet. 1. 12. then esteem the feet of the messengers of God to be pleasant upon the mountains for they bring glad tidings of peace and that they only do who have these gifts of the Spirit to pray and believe Rom. 10. 14 15. 4. The speaking against the manifest operations of the Spirit of the Lord by which Christ cast out divels draws so deep as the sin against the holy Ghost Matth. 12. and such are deprived of pardon of faith to lay hold on pardon and such having done despite to the spirit of grace must indite war against the Spirit and all his operations therefore cherish and obey the Spirits actings be willing to be led by him close with the counsels and breathings of the Spirit speak to edification that which ministers grace to the hearers and that cherishes the
sealing of the Spirit Eph. 4. 29 30. So singing Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs with making melody in the heart to the Lord is a proclaiming that there is some fulness of the Spirit if the Spirit could speak in the Saints the two native languages of the Spirit would be praying for that is the cry of the Spirit Rom. 8. 15 23 26. and singing praises Eph. 5. 18 19 20. The way to have influences of the Spirit is to pray continually and fervently and to give thanks always for all things unto God the father in the name of our Lord Jesus Eph. 5. 20. 5. A wicked hardening of the heart is as if ye would cast water on a weakly smoaking fire of green timber that cannot be a seat an office-house to the Spirit and his actings such are interdited of the spiritual seeing and of the Spirits hearing of the Spirit Rom. 11. 8. God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear to this day It 's dreadful when Prophets preach some stark blind and dead one of the chief and noble operations of the Spirit is illumination and he is a seeing and an enlightning and a hearing spirit 1. Wink not before the shining beams of the Sun yield heartily to the convictions of the Spirit John 16. 7. such as waste away the light of conscience and the convictions of the Spirit are not entrusted again with new actings of the Spirits enlightning 2. Be tender and stand in awe of smaller sins it speaks much of the spirit in David to be smitten with the renting of the lap of Saul's garment 6. Some make themselves uncapable of the actings of the Spirit who seeing great temptations signs and miracles have plenty of means yet remain blind and hard-hearted and dull of hearing Deut. 29. 2 3 4. Heb. 5. 11 12. Joh. 12. 37 38 39 40. if we would improve the actings of the Spirit and delight in the Lords way we should have new influences to walk in his paths Psalm 119. 35. and God teacheth David good judgements for saith he I have believed thy commandments v. 66. So are they-far from new influences who abuse so many plagues and so many deliverances from these plagues as Pharaoh did and crush the motions of a trembling conscience as Felix did a doubt it may be if ever the like acting of a law-Law-spirit visit such men again 7. All such who remain in the state of unrenewed nature are uncapable of the actings of the Spirit nor does the Spirit lodge in sensual and beastly men Jude v. 19. nor can the world receive the Spirit of truth John 14. 17. no more then the spirit and breathing of a horse can lodge in aâ—pismire It 's true John Baptist was full of the holy Ghost from the womb Luke 1 15. and the Spirit acts him with joy v. 41. when Mary saluted her but John Baptists sin Original was both then pardoned as touching the damnation thereof and subdued as touching the dominion of it Otherwise another spirit acts and works by nature in the sons of disobedience Eph. 2. 2. and these two strong ones can remain and dwell both in one castle then seek translation and to be with Christ if ye would have the Spirit and his influences multitudes no more complain of the want of the influences of the Spirit then a dead mans corps complains of cold of hunger of thirst or of influences of life from the living soul nor complain they of sickness Oh it speaks life to be pained for the waâ— of the Spirit and his influences what wonder that ye cannot perswade a sleeping man that he sleeps 8. Some actings of bitterness wrath clamour anger and malice in the Saints may sadden the Spirit of God darken the evidence of the Spirits sealing unto the day of redemption Eph. 4. 30 31. It must be a sort of suffering to the Spirit and a casting water on the fire and a deadning to David as touching vigorous and lively operations that he acted adultery and murther which moves him to pray for the restoring to him again the joy of the Lords salvation and to be upholden by the Lords free spirit Psal 51. 12. Can a King dwell even in a palace when it is burning and smoaking about his ears therefore holy actings teaching of sinners praying praising Psalm 51. 13 14. 15. to be kind one to another and tender-hearted to forgive one another as Christ did Eph. 4. 32. and to act as the Spirit and to be holy and heavenly in one walk puts the Spirit in a sweet composed temper to act and breath abundantly in his flowings of love and grace 9. It would be observed that influences of the Spirit are contempered with the actings of grace with which they concur the spirit of adoption acts in the grammer of prayer to cry Abba Father and he comes down to the language of children learning to speak and to say Abba and the Spirit helps our infirmities O it must be great help that the Spirit yields it must be creating of new heavens or removing of mountains or dividing of the sea or something like say some nay the Spirit helps us with a groan his influences come down to sigh and weep and mourn like a dove in a Saint Rom. 8. 26. Cant. 2. 14. Ezech. 7. 16. and if so it 's no wonder that the Spirit breaths not on our wild fire anger Well does the Spirit breathe on Christs holy anger he was angry and grieved Mark 3. 5. and was saddened at the offending of God To be angry at the sin of offenders and yet so as to compassionate the soul of the offender this is to fix a fit seat for the influences of the spirit nor can we receive the influences of that spirit who applieth and intimateth pardon and forgiveness when our anger is such to these who injure us as we cannot forgive them and if anger lodge and take chamber in the bosome and brest of a fool can the Spirit breathe supplications in such a brest when the fountain is troubled and muddy with clay it gives no representation of the face and image to the beholder Psalm 119. 135. Make thy face to shine on thy servant but the soul is a dusty and muddy glasse most unfit to receive the irradiations and beams of such a transcendent sun of glory yea it 's some way fitted v. 136. rivers of water run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law Then a soul mourning for sin is fit to be shined upon by the Lord when the man Christs soul is exceeding sorrowful even to the death Matth. 26. 38. then is his soul fit to receive dartings of the spirit to pray most humbly with his face on the ground v. 39. most believingly O my Father O my Father most fervently with tripple praying 44. more earnestly Luke 22. 44. or more bendedly then
allurement upon the phancy of the bird enticing it to the net and the bird also physically makes use of its wings God joyning his influence so would we looking to the command and promise of God be induced to bring will and affections under the acting and breathing of the spirit also physically act our faith in the mean time relying upon God for the flowings of his spirit 3. If any thing be said that Soveraignty does also hinder influences for God hides himself will your faith and prayers conclude him that he shall not hide himself but shine Answ Soveraignty should counter work Soveraignty if there were a law passed by the Lord that ever when we pray in faith in that same very nick and moment of time he must take off the arrestment of desertion as if prayer were to speak so a sort of charming of holy Soveraignty But the law is and the promise that when we pray in faith for shining influences he shall remove our night of the hiding of his face and the Spirits sad withdrawing not absolutely but in the way of his own holy and wise Soveraignty and also the prayer of faith hath some other effect then the present removal of desertion prayer keeps the soul under sufficient graces fresh showrings and stays the burnt man under patient induring of the fire in condition of a refreshing cooling and expelling of the heat The man Christ lies under forsaking but influences of the Spirit to pray to believe to submit to hope keeps him vigorous and green that gloriously and triumphingly he endures the Cross for suffering pain in faith and joy is more excellent then the removing of pain CHAP. IIII. Of other impediments of influences in particular coming from the mind will and some other considerable affections and their cures 1. False and heretical light 2. A corrupt will 3 From hatred of Christ 1. THe corrupt wisedom and the wicked learning of men who are carnal and destitute of the truth can produce nothing but doting about questions and strife of words whereof cometh envy strife railing or blasphemys evil-surmisings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perverse disputing these are the genuine fruits of the heretical spirit 1 Tim. 6. 3 4 5. and of the wisedom of men which neither is subject to the law of God and his truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither can be subject Rom. 8. 7 c. of the carnal man who neither receives the things of the Spirit of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither can he know them and observe that the Holy Ghost in both places denies both the act and the possibility of the minds subjection to the truth where the judgement is rotten Now as we may well say the rock hath no natural power to receive an influence from God for the growing of wheat on it nor a thorn-tree to bring forth wine grapes as our Saviour speaks Matth. 7. 16. so neither can the corrupt and heretical mind produce sound truths nor can the Lord give influences in a natural way to a thistle to bring forth figs indeed by a miracle the Lord caused Aaron's dead withered rod to blossome and bring forth almonds And Caiphas I say not by a miracle but in an extraordinary way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 11. 51. not of himself but by the Spirit prophesied and so did Balaam But they did not spiritually and with the light of faith know what they prophesied yea I would crave leave to doubt whether they literally knew that Christ God-man was the star of Jacob the light of the Gentiles and to die for the Elect as many Hereticks yea and the Divels literally know and believe these things with an Historical faith If you would have breathings of the Spirit to know savingly and to assent to divine truths motes and dirt and scales must be removed and the mind renewed then divine illumination is absolutely needful 2. Nor acts the Spirit in the polluted mind and conscience of the world which cannot receive the Spirit Now that power of receiving the Spirit denyed of the world John 14. 17. must be both a power natural and a power acquired by wicked actings for the elect redeemed world by a natural power cannot receive the Spirit of truth 2. If the will be corrupt that it will not come to Christ John 5. 40. and will not have Christ to reign Luke 19. 14. the man cannot lend a seat to the Spirit and his actings to obey and follow God until the fallow-ground of the rocky will be plowed and broken otherwise the man sows among thorns and labours a husbandry to the flesh and not to the Spirit as Paul speaks Gal. 6. 8. and the harvest must be corruption and rotten fruit judge then if the Spirit labours and tills a plot of ground to the flesh and if the Spirit from on high can send down influences and divine impressions of dew and warm sun-beams upon the fleshes plowed earth or if nature intend that rain and Sun-heat shall make the rocks bring forth wheat O how needful is a denyed will when Saul speaks of no will but Christ's and commits all to Christ's will as if his own will were annilâ—ilated though it was perfected Acts 9. the man is fallen to the earth And he trembling and astonished saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord what will thou have me to doe There is a strong Emphasis in Lord and in the word will His own wicked will was playing the King or the Tyrant over the Saints and when his will is down and the will of Christ up and the man hath been three days in this condition fasting and praying then comes the spirit to take his own chop and to act in Panl v. 17. Ananias saith Brother Saul the Lord even Jesus that appeared to thee in the way as thou camest hath sent me to thee that thou mayst receive thy sight and be filed mith the holy Ghost a humble broken will deadned to self and to all things shall be rained on and such as is rebellious shall be a land of drought Zech. 14. 16. And it shall come to passe that who so will not come up of all the familys of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the king the Lord of hosts even upon them shall be no rain 3. There be strong impediments that obstruct influences of the spirit of grace from all the affections if the heart be not with all watching watched over 1. The world that hates Christ John 15. 18 20. and persecutes him and his servants is the same world which cannot receive the spirit of truth John 14. 17. if ye hate Christ and the Godly no influences of grace for you Ye shal hew all your dayes be ye minister or professor upon hard timber without the Spirits tools ye shall pray preach professe hear sing praise in the letter with out the Spirit and his influences for ye can not receive the Spirit of truth John 14. 17.
and then must you be dry and withered in all your actings whereas influences and manifestations are promised to the lovers of Christ Joh. 14. 21. he that hath my commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my selfe to him These sure are the revelations and manifestations of the Spirit John 15. 24. Christ puts a strong wall of difference between the hating world and the disciples v. 24. now they have both seene and hated both me and my Father but not so ye v. 26. when the comforter is come whom J will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me v. 27. and ye also shall beare witnesse because ye have been with me from the beginning Here are actings of the spirit in the disciples who love the father and Christ that the spirit acteth them to bear witness of him to the world upon all hazards even to death and torment We see what workes and actings of the spirit is in the Spouse sick of love for Christ which are in that song of songs to be seen comparing Cant. 2. 5. Cant. 5. 8. with other places of the song these works of the spirit are seen 1. A desire to be kissed with the kisses of his mouth Cant. 1. 2. 2. A spirituall smelling of his good oyntments Cant. 13. 3. A prayer to be drawn and a vow to run being drawn Cant. 1. 4. 4. A resolution to rejoyce in his love with all the virgins and chaste followers of Christ Cant. 1. 4. to rejoyce more in his love then in wine 5. A desire to be where Christ dwelleth in the tents of the Shepherds a sound Ministry Cant. 1. 7. 6. A profession of intimate love to Christ so as he lies as a bundle of myrrhe betwixt her brests all the night Cant. 1. 13 16. an extolling of Christ as the apple-tree among all the trees of the forrest Cant. 2. 3. and a delighting to taste the fruits of his love 7. A spiritual feeling in being taken into his celler-house of wine Cant. 2. 4. a desire to be refreshed and established with the promises and comforts of the preached Gospel Cant. 2. 5. Stay me with flagons and comfort me with apples for I am sick of love 8. The feeling of his love-imbracements when they are on v. 6. His left hand is under my head and his right hand embraceth me 9. Because the whole song is a song of love there is a charge given not to offend Christ v. 7. 10. An eying of him by faith in his approaches in the delivery of his people in his coming in the flesh to save the world in the preached Gospel in all which his coming leaping over the mountains and skipping over the hills saith That no impediment of the enemies and the powers of hell and no evil deserving of sin can obstruct his gracious motions to save and comfort his own v. 8 9. 11. The discerning of Christ's calling us in the Gospel v. 10 11 12. My Beloved spake and said unto me Rise up my love my fair one and come away 12. The discerning of his desire of our worship of the Churches praying doctrine and discipline v. 14 15. O my dove let me see thy countenance let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy vice c. 13. The Churches claiming of interest mutual betwixt Christ and his Spouse v. 16. My Beloved is mine and I am his 14. The observing where Christ is his feeding among the lillies in his Church which is clean and comely by his beauty 16. He feedeth among the lillies 17. untill the day breake c. 15. The Spouses desire of his company v. 17. Turn my Beloved and be thou like a Roe or a young Hart upon the mountains of Bether a desire of being with him for ever in glory as Rev. 22. v. 17 20. 16. The Spouses careful seeking of Christ and spiritual restlesness till she find him Cant. 3. 1 2 3 4. I sought him whom my soul loved I sought him but I found him not c. 17. The sweet spiritual smell of the so loved Church v. 6 c. 18. Chap. 5. The Spouses discerning of his knock and voice though she sleep 2. The acknowledging of her sinful denying to let him in 3. The Spirit of Christs acting upon her heart till the bowels of love were stirred in her v. 4. 4. The opening to him 5. The smell of her obedience which she felt like dropping myrrhe v. 5. 19. The Spouses swooning and falling dead at his departure 20. The Spouses praying and seeking him when now he had withdrawn himself and the missing of the sweet actings of the spirit to her sense v. 6. 21. Her seeking of him at the watchmen 1 6 7. 22. Her desire that other professors the daughters of Jerusalem may in prayer hold forth to Christ her spiritual state of love-sickness v. 8. 23. Her preferring of Christ to all other beloveds in Heaven or Earth v. 9. 14. The Spouses high exalting of Christ in all his parts endowments graces and lowliness My Beloved is white and ruddy v. 10 11 12 c. all these and many others the like teach that the spirit in such excellent operations and graces hath his dwelling and seat in an heart strongly filled with the love of Christ But who hates Christ 1. All persecuters of his members John 15. 18. If the world hate you ye know that it hated me before you And it is exponed v. 20. If they have persecuted me they will also persecute you And whoever loves not the Brethren are not translated 1 John 3. 14. and they who love them not hate them 1 John 3. 14. compared with v. 15. how carnal lust and the love of glory from men hindereth influences of the Spirit to love Christ See John 8. 42. If God were your father ye would love me 44. Ye are of your father the Divel the lusts of your father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye will do he was a murderer from the beginning v. 50. I seek not mine own glory The strong love of Christ in the heart is a chamber and a house for the Spirit to act in 2. Not desiring of God but an abhorring or a soul abhorring of God hinders influences of the Spirit 1. Are there any who abhor God such a sad word is spoken of the Jews Zech. 11. 8. Three Shepherds also I cut off in one month and my soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me Departing from God as a whorish woman forsakes her huband is charged upon the confederat people harlotry upon every high hill and under every green tree Jer. 2. 20. even when they said We will not transgress Hos 4. 12. The spirit of whoredom hath caused them to erre and they have gone a whoring from under their God 13. And can the holy spirit
answered according to Scripture and sound reason disp Scholas de providentia Exercit. apolo pro gratai divian Christs dying and drawing Infinite almost influences of God We look not spiritually on influences What influences are Influences of God are suitable to Gods end Influences of God for nilling and willing most rare and excellent How Christ and the promised Spirit must be the causes of gracious influences We are to believe that he who purchased by his merit the habit of grace shall give suitable influences and to fear also our propension to fall The promise of influences in Christ Necessity of influences Reasons of renewed influences The first Adam might want influences the second cannot Satans actions always destitute of influences How God withdraws infâ—uences in particular acts hic nunc and yet hath promised to bestow influences on the regenerate by promise The Lord acts on us by his influences but we act not on him How we cannot pray away desertion and the trying withdrawings yet are we to pray submissively for the removal of desertion and are to pray against withdrawings The Lord 's withdrawing makes not the holy one the author of sin nor destroys liberty The cause why God is not chargeable with the act of disobedience and man is chargeable How we interpretatively yield to the want of influences of grace and sin formally in the same act Our interpretative wanting of influences and our formal sinning in the same act further clear'd The soveraignty of God is destroy'd by Pelagians to the end they may exa't mans Free-will Of our acts and spiritual duties under the spiritual withdrawings of God Something of the state of the question Our inability to do duties when the Spirit withdraws looseth us not from a moral obligation to perform the duties Aug. Epist 89. Jubet Deus continentiam dat continentia Jubet per Legem dat per Gratiam jubet per Literam dat per Spiritum Differences betwixt the command and the influences of the spirit clear that it is not formally sin to pray under withdrawings of influences of grace Vnder the ceasing of actual breathing we are to stir the remainders of the Seed of God We are to doe our part in duties under withdrawings Grace sweetens duties What Soveraignty is and how it differs from omnipotency Soveraignty is to be adored in the hardest conditions We storm more at permissive providences then at our own permitted sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are most graciously active to doe the will of God who are most graciously passive to suffer his will and on the contrary The unsearchableness of the Lord's dispensation into the eternal standing and falling of Angels and Men. It s vain to determine that the providence of never sinning is choicer then the providence of the inbringing of Christ God-man to die for sinners As Mr. Baxter The rightousness of God through faith is incomparably above our inherent righteousness Isa 42. 1 2. Isa 53. 11. Matth. 3. 17. Matth. 17. 5. John 3. 16. John 15. 13. Tit. 3. 45. Isa 62. 2 3. Eph. 3. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 12. It s a more â—minently declarative glory which is brought forth in the second Adam nor possibly could have been in the full and final obedience of the first Adam Not to sin by no Scripture is choicer then to seek pardon in Christ's bloud By justification we are not only negatively freed from guilt wrath but also positively righteous Inherent righteousness in glory is not the compleat and adequate end of Gospel justification or of the Lord's Gospel-dispensation in commanding us to believe and be holy How spiritual service to doe all because of the holy will of the Lord. We are not to struggle with permissive providence it s not our Rule but to be low because of the deep results of that providence our own permitted sins The soul-humbling thoughts that should flow from holy Soveraignty The number of things possible and impossible that are to fall out or exist is under holy Soveraignty The connection of things of which the extremes never shall come to pass as also the existence and co-existence of things must be under the holy Soveraignty of God Soveraignty shines in means and end things of rare providence and justice in administration of means of salvation to some not to others Soveraignty is eminent in holding of possible evils and in determining the measure of sufferings The due timeing of things is from Soveraignty Q. Whether and in what sense God can create things in better or worse case 1 Sam. 2. 7. Psal 75. 6. The shift of complaining of want of influences is refuted Who ever flatteringly complain of the want of influences of grace hate these influences Nature cannot complain of the want of gracious influences We are not to seek Influences of life separated from the word Calvin Com. 119. v. 28. absque verbo nobis fuget dei potentia Omnipotency joyned with the Word saves Influences of God as Creator only cannot save us How we may lawfully complain of withdrawing of Influences of grace and how we may lawfully desire Influences The faultiness in not praying is not because the holy Spirit moves us not to pray but because we stir not up our selvs to pray This I will not pray untill the Lord first breath on me by his Spirit is a wide mistake The precept chargeth us to obey as rational creatures not as disposed or indisposed What a delusion there is in not praying till the Lord breath on us There is no contradiction betwixt our physical indisposition to pray or to other duties and our moral obligation to perform these duties Both a spiritual disposition may be on and a conscience of obedience to pray at one time We are to act duties before we feel the actings of the Spirit Preparation before prayer To wait upon the breathings of the Spirit how it is lawful how not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is a wicked weaknesse and a sinfull Cannot as contradistinguished from sinful actings which the holy Ghost reproves and then must the indisposition to receive influences to pray be no excuse to shift the duty The Lord 's withdrawing of influences is conjoyned with our guiltiness and cannot found an honest excuse for not praying The Lord 's not giving a new heart is not our sin and yet our not having a new heart is our guiltiness The Lord's influences are connatural to all our actings and how Our actings have no dominion over the Lord's Soveraignty but contrarily The sin of the creature is not from the Lords withdrawing of his physical influences but from our withdrawing from his moral command Magnus D. Twissus contra Arnold Corvinum c. 13. sect 1â— p. 437. n. 2. col 1. Quare licet hominum malitiae tribuatur in solidum quod non credant tamen etiam defectui gratiae nihilominus tribuendum est quod non curetur mentis caecitas cordis insidelitas Nam si
affirmatio sit causa affirmationis etiam negatio erit causa negationis Sic Servator ipse Qui ex Deo est Vocem audit Dei vos autem propterea non auditis quia ex Deo non estis Joan. 8. 37. The objection of many if God would give me influences of grace as he did to David Moses c. I would be as holy as any discussed The non-sense of this had I more grace I should be more gracious If the â—bâ—ecto of this had I more grace I would 〈◊〉 gracious were a humble â—â—vert the objection should be more savoury yet not sounder O if I had more grace I would labour and run more is a contradictory speech in the sluggard One spece desires not to be turned into another nor does a natural man desire to be a convert Luke 14. 16 17 18 19. Natural men wish physical influences of God but they hate moral holiness Natural men love independency and hate to be under the Lord 's governing influences He that uses not a less power or gift of two degrees for God would not use a power of ten degrees for God as is cleared in instances of 1. Wisedom 2. Power of Magistracy 3. Of old age 4. Riches 5. Habit of grace c. Riches cannot add mercifulâ—ess to men The Objection opened If I had had the grace of David I would not have acted the wickedness which David acted The Objection had I more grace I would be more gracious may be retorted Faith and Grace doe not depend upon extraordinary means and teachers sent from hell and we are much deceived thinking Had we more grace we should be more gracious If free will be weak in the improving a natural power it will be so in the improving of supernatural grace Mr. Fenner's Wilful impenitency pag. 80. There is an extolling of nature in this had I more grace I would be more holy for I and self is separated from Christ The carnal Objection If God gave stronger influences I should be more holy is a sinful complaining against Soveraignty 2. Against infinite wisedom what a depth is here 3. The Objection is against the freedom of grace The Objection chargeth the holy Lord with envy The objection chargeth the holy Lord with unrighteousness It chargeth God with male-government It strives with holy providence in the point of original sin How we wish to be from under sin original and how not God ties us to his own way of removing of sin not to our empty wishing that it were removed What sort of influences we are to seek from God The using of means is an approved way of God How reformation of life goes not before remission as Mr. Baxter saith Some violently bâ—ought in to know Christ some more mildly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John not under the same dispensation with Peter Jonah strong in his passions Eliah's temper The Old Testament dispensations and the New are compared together and their differences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Various kinds of desertions Various kinds of desertions on the Lord 's redeemed Whether by prayer or any other way we may wrestle out from under God's desertions To deprecate the anger of God how laudable how not Influences are given of God to various temptations It is a gracious temper to weep when the Lord is absent or angry A soveraignty in the Lord 's hearing or not hearing Strive not with soveraignty Divers kinds of striving with soveraignty Deadness and desertion may be on one way and much of God in other actings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impegit offendit pede Christs absence is sometimes as good as his presence We are not to strive with the Law Sometime we may pray against the decree of God but it s never lawful to resist his commanding will It s good to answer every impression of his word 1 Pet. 1. 23. The new-birth We may weep over our own dry hearts when we want influences but we cannot weep against the Lord because he gives not these influences We are to meet all conditions of life with closing with his holy dispensation Luke 21. 12 17. Now we cannot prevent God The Lord strongly bows free will We are to pray for our own prayers There is no warrant for us not to act because God is Lord of our actings How we are to doe though God only work in us to doe The Word is the rule of doing the Spirit the real efficient cause How the Lord can lay by a command supernatural duties on men impotent and dead in sin We may use the loco-motive faculty in hearing and God convert men beyond their intention Gospel-commands stand well with divine justice Pelagius to heighten this said if our inability to obey be a punishment it s not a sin and if a sin it s no punishment for punishment cures sin Augustin de natura gratia cap. 29. Quid amplius dicam inquit Pelagius non ipse Augustinus ut pessime Jesuitae nisi quia potest credi quod ignes ignibus extinquuntur si credi potest quod peccata peccatis curentur Now we may believe said the Pelagians that fire may be extinguished by fire if sin be cured by sin and if God command both obedience and our impotency to obey be both a sin and a punishment so Julianus a disciple grosser then the master August lib. 5. contra Julian c. 4. So Pelagians taught that the godly before Moses Law were saved by the law of nature Epist ad Demetrium Hac lege naturae verba Pelagii sunt usi sunt omnes quos inter Adamum atque Mosem sancte vixisse atque placuisse Deo Scriptura commemorat August l. 2. imperfect operis cont Julianum Quid timetis magnum populum Christi Judicium magnum non timetis aperte dicite justificari natura justificari lege possumus gratis mortuus est Christus lib. 2. cont Juli c. 8. Epistol 95. Serm. 36. de verbis Domini Non solum ad facienda verumetiam ad perficienda mandata divina per liberum arbitrium humana sufficit natura Tu nos fecisti homines justos autem ipsi nos fecimus Aug. l. de Gestis Pelag. c. 14. Lib. 4. ad Bonefac c. 11. l. 2. imperf operis l. de spiritu litera c. 1. Pelagius l. 2. de lib. arb apud August l. de grat Christi c. 4. Nos sic tria ista distinguimus certum velut in ordinem digesta partimur priâ—o loco posse Cornel Jansen tom 1. de haeresi Pelag. l. 4. c. 13. p. 87. esse sine peccato statuimus secundo velle tertio esse primum illud id est posse ad Deum proprie pertinet qui illud creaturae suae contulit Duo vero reliqua hoc est velle esse ad hominem referenda sunt quia de arbitrii fonte descendunt Q What power of believing we want In what sense the Lord may charge men to believe who now in Adam have losed power of believing
Original sin is sin properly so called Author Imperf operis l. 1. cont Julianum nihil esse peccati in homine si nihil est propriae voluntais vel assensionis hoc mihi hominum genus quod vel leviter sapit sine dubitatatione consentit Lib. Imperfec operis 2. Quod admoneri non potest ut caveatur imputari non potest ut puniatur nunquam autem Legislator ad hanc venit amentiam ut praeceperit cuiquam noli ita vel ita nasci Lib. de peccato merit remis c. 9. c. 26. si peccator genuit peccatorem justum quoque justum gignere debuisse Item Deum qui propria peccata remittit aliena non imputare item parvulis melius esse ex parentibus non nasci Vt jure damnabiles esse imo comparari parricidis in quibus sit causa ut filii nascantur ad damnationem Vide l. 3. cont Julian c. ultimo Item lib. 5. cont Julian c. 11. lib. 5. 1. oper imperfec lib. 1. cae Mr. Baxter 's Preface to his Confession God will judge none on the meer terms of the law of nature nor condemn them only for original sin They that say otherwise do too injuriously extenuate both the grace of God and the sin of man Are not Infants condemned to death and condemned heirs of wrath Rom. 5. Eph. 2. 1 2. 3. 2. Where hath the grace of God made original sin to be no sin or pardoned sinne Hath Christ washed all Infants in his blood Is that a supposed wrath Eph. 2. Insants are not washed in Christs blood according to Pelagians and Arminians but must be saved by some other name then by the name of Jesus Infants are not washed in Christ's bloud according to Pelagians and Arminians but must be saved by some other name then by the name of Jesus God in creating man is both a creator and also a law-giver We are to be humbled for sin original No man can bring himself in a spiritual capacity to receive grace How to fetch influences The Spirit of grace hath his own influence in actions which the regenerate perform out of custome and formality at least in the progress of these actions 2. Sermon on Pray continually pag. 35. How the Lord brings himself under a sort of necessity of conferring gracious influences A practise of grace and a promise of grace in God A Considerable difference betwixt the Lord's promise of grace and his practise oâ— grace Civil professors are nearer to conversion and to Christ then the openly profane and flagitious and how they are also farther distant External use of means is to be gone about as nearer to conversion then no use of means or extreme prophaneness All even the most indisposed are under a command It s a sinful shift to put away duties because of indisposition We are to pray away indispositions as a great affliction The Lord hath given influences by necessity of a promise A clearing of the place Deu. 29. 3. the great temptations c. August lib. 1. con 6. Nec mater mea nec nutrices meae sibi ubera implebant sed tu mihi Domine per eas dabas mihi alimentum infantiae secundum institutionem tuam divitias usque ad fundum rerum dispositas tu etiam dabas nolle amplius quam dabas nutrientibus me dare mihi velle quod eis dabas dare enim mihi per ordinatum effectum volebant quo ex te abundabant Ripening of guiltinesse makes way to ripening of free grace The three persons the Father Son and Spirit give influences The fulness of influences on the man Christ Influences of the Father upon his own The Lord's beginning of a good work in us brings the Lord under a necessity of conferring influences to the end How shall our short arm reach these influences Christ hath the dispensing of predeterminating influences by office and covenant The influences in the Son are all for our use and good The spirit of the world The glorious things which the spirit of God shews How the spirit of God dwels in his own The spirit of the world in the Antichrist and divers other spirits lead the world Liberty of stirring follows the spirit Praying is proper to the spirit Baron de peccato mort veniali The spirit prevenes nature nature prevenes not the spirit Characters of a spiritual soul We are to pray for influences The spirit conveys the word the spirit's relations to the word A two-fold power of the word Of the power of the word and the power of the spirit and how they are differenced Speaking in the spirit is not ever saving to the hearers The spirit's convictions In the spirit's conviction there is some new strength added to the word A state of pure spirit and of all spirit beyond the word in this life is a fancy Obedience is to be yielded to the spirit as to the Father and the Son Much renewd will is a note of a spiritual disposition Four expressions in Scripture of wrongs we doe to the spirit Vexing of the spirit and violence done to his actings Saduing of the spirit and the signs of it Quenching of the spirit We are to make a sort of eike to the spirit Tempting of the spirit 4 Resisting of the spirit and persecuting of godliness The spirit above self speaks a spiritual one he who is least his own is most God's To doubt as a bewildered man of all ways and to desire to be led of God is a spiritual character Spiritual facility is a spiritual character A publick spirit declares a spiritual man How to improve spiritual feelings Watching is a spiritual condition and near to receive gracious influences To converse with the Saints is a mark of a spiritual condition Spiritual conference frequently used speaks a spiritual condition How Satan knows the actings of the heart Satan keeps correspondence with the heart It 's lawful to dispute with Satans instruments not with Satan Christ sought not the tempter nor the temptation but in a sort a patient in being tempted Differences between Satans influences and these of the Lord. Christ under a necessity of giving sanctifying influences Moral and physical influences Moral influences that are only moral are weak Ordinary and extraordinary influences Prophetical influences It 's dangerous to resist strong light and the influences thereof Private and publick Church influences Strong influences under the Messiah in the New Testament Gospel-influences are strong Some influences are for the habit some for the actings of grace some for both Influences proper to the head Christ and influences on the members Mediatory influences are some way due to the broken in heart and what sort of right they have thereunto A four-fold right to influences is considerable Strong and mighty influences in Christ Gospel-providence how far above the law-providence of Adam Mr Gee treats of prayer Sect. p. 187 188 195. Influences of Christ fundamental and not fundamental The
bringeth forth holy actings Heavenly dispositions are real helps to holy actings Properties of heavenly dispositions to act under indispositions A disposition counter-working a disposition The Spirit in a heavenly disposition at length prevaileth 3. Property What we are to doe under dispositions spiritual Spiritual dispositions are at length victorious How to get heavenly dispositions Heavenly dispositions connaturally cast out acts suitable 5. Prop. Heavenly dispositions cause a man act upoâ— himself The meeting of believers for godly conference is owned by the Lord. Small meanes of grace and short visits of Christ are to be highly esteemed at some time especially when larger love-flowings have been neglected Sense is prouder then faith Withdrawings of Christ teach to try whether we have abused his manifestations formerly Except we find Christ we cannot pray How to judge of the nature of praying Praying fitteth for praying There are degrees of discerning an answer The real withdrawings of Christ make no change of legal interests in Christ The life of grace depends on influences of grace Christs right and acts in redeemâ—ng of us stand entire when we are deserted What love-sickness implies Withdrawing of comforts come from wise and holy reasons in God The wisedome of Gods appointing that we depend on him How we may pray for comforts How we may deprecate languishing pain in love-sickness How we may pray for gracious influences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A two-fold contradicting of the Lords will A love-sickness from the want of Christ As touching pardon we have peace with God jure de facto but as touching the blot and indwelling of sin we ought not to have peace with sin or with our selves as under that blot Ingredients of love-sickness The pain of love-sickness The righting of the complaining of the damned Saith above sense Faith with stronger influences then ordinary controlleth sense under desertions The Idol of moderation is an enemy to true zeal Spiritual savouriness active and passive Savouriness in Christ in his Spouse in single members Whether God commands all use of means external and internal and every part thereof Nature and Grace Whether grace be above the disposition of nature Whether grace be above natures prayers Whether grace be above natures merit Whether God gives supernatural grace as due to natures acting Whether the Lord tieth grace to works of nature though not as by merit yet by condition Whether God gives or whether God denies not sufficient grace to the man who doth what he can The natural wicked inability of all to know believe and love Christ proves that there is no such thing as sufficient grace given to Brasilians and Indians those of China Martinez de Ripalda Jesuita tom 1. de ente supernaturali l. 1. disp 20. sect 4. num 17. p 180. Dum deum ante ostium audio recolo illud Apoc. 3. Ecce ego sto ad ostium pulso si quis operuerit mihi januam Introibo ad illum mihi persuades nunquam per deum stare tanquam causam moralem inquam ego Jesuitae respondens ut concursus naturae in affectum virtutis salutaris non sit ac proinde auxilia gratiae pulsantia excitantia voluntatem suadendo tantum ut Pelagius suasu nihil virium novarum additur libero arbitrio quibus talis concursus edendus erat salutaris nulli conatus naturae in bonum defuisse aut deesse alias operante voluntate quantum ex se est neque deus neque salus hominis appropinquaret si quidem ex defectu gratiae supernaturalis homo per eum concursum qui potuit esse salutaris non promoveretur in salutem Martinez ib. sect 7. num 29. Gratia supernaturalis adeo frequens ut continua providetur homini animum advertenti ad bonum honestum ut eo auxilio juvetur ad amorem honesti ergo ex lege providentia supernaturali dei semper assistit gratia praeveniens supernaturalis homini agenni quod in se est in amorem honesti adeoque frustranea esset tanta frequentia illustrationum supernaturalium gratiae The Jesuit Ripalda citeth many texts of the Gospel for universal grace to Brasilians and to all which were never intended by the holy Ghost Suarez de gra lib. 12. c. 32. Suarez lib. 3. de aux c. 2. Suarez de praedest lib. 2. c. 6 7 18. Cumel 1 2 4. 109. az 3. disp 1. Bellar. to 3. l. 2. de gra lib. arb c. 6. seque Greg. de Val. 1 2. disp 8 9. 3. puncto 4. Vasquez 1. part disp 97. c. 5. Bonav m. 2. d. 18. art 2. c. 1. Alb. Magnus in 2. d. 28. art 1. ad 4. Si hoc fecerimus quantum in nobis est deus inevitabiliter dat gratiam Marsilius in 4. 9. 20. potest homo interioribus dei motionibus vel etiam excitamentis exte ioribus facere quod in se est quod si faciat deus dat illi charitatem Dominico Sotus h. 1. de nat gra c. 18. ad 2. ita deus est omnibus praesentissimus ad ostium pulsans et a se nihil omnino desit officii quin perditissimo etiam cuique opem ferat Stapleto Antid in Rom. 9. Antidot in Joan. c. 6. Curiel l. 2. controv 4. num 134. Vega. l. 13. III. Trident. c. 12. Driedo de capt tra 5. c. 3. Viguerius inst c. 10 9. 4. auxilium speciale semper est paratum homini facienti quod in se est The Gospel-promise or Gospel-threatning of sending or denying the Gospel to Pagans who act or who omit such previous performances is an unwritten tradition Sinners under the fall of Adam are now enterdited heirs and declared Idiots not worthy of the trust of grace The connexion betwixt literal acting and supernatural influences The new supernatural providence set up by Christ the second Adam by which the conversion of the elect is brought to passe and influences accordingly given Corruption and temptation both encrease the difficulty of using of means Influences work as God sets them on The gracious heart may reflect upon it self spiritual actings and purge it self 1. Case We may do more by the habit of grace then we do 2. Case We vainly look thaâ— the habit of grace is given to be our justification and that for a dispensation for sin 3. Case Inability to do without grace is pretended by the lawless bankrupt and by the humble convert but for divers ends Fenner's Wilful impenitency page 60. 4. The unrenewed man would have God to come down to his way Pag. 62 63. 5. The natural man would be in heaven without means 6. No promise made to using of external means only 7. But there is a sad threatning to the nâ—t using of means external anâ— yet no promise made to the only using of means external The opposition made by Reprobates to Christ in the Gospel is only in the outer gate Reprobates resist not the formal acts of Regeneration Mr. Baxter's order of
that the Lord is to be blamed for my non-conversion Our sinfull will not not the Lord's refusal of a power is the culpable cause of our non-conversion The sinful cannot School-men make conversion to Christ the purchase of free will the absurdity thereof Sin original must be pardoned to Pagans in Christs blood of which they never heard say Dominicans Dominicans gross as Jesuits in the matter of grace and free will Cumel dico quinto Deus quantum in se paratus est aâ— dandum omnibus gratiam suam ad vocandum omnes adultos juxta illud Deus vult omnes salfâ—eri ac proinde dicitur communiter quod in potestate cujusvis hominis est salvari quia potest habere per divinum auxilium non quidem ex merito aut dispositione sua aut quia ex innatis viribus aut naturae conatibus ex lege obligetur Deus ad danda auxilia gratiae primam vocationem seu gratiam proveniâ—â—tem sed ex liberali magnisica largitione dei providentis Mat. 11. venite ad me omnes Ib. Qua-propter si homo peccator ita se gereret vitamtra duceret ut nullum novum impedimentum gratiae adhiberet aut obicem nullumque obstaculum tunc auxilium gratiae verè reciperet â—on quidem ex debito sed ex dei largitione qua ipse est ad omnium ostium pulsat unde non ponenti obicem cernimus Deum dare gratiam Conc. trid sess 6. 11. 13. Deus neminem deserit nisi prius deseratur ab ipso sed per hoc nihil tribuitur homini sed tantum quod possit illam gratiam impedire per peccatum vel quod possit vitare peccatum contra legem naturae quo possit illum impedire Prosper epist ad Aug. de Massiliensibus vide Jansenium cap. 18. ib. lib. 12. just c. 13. ad capessenda tam magnifica tamque praecelsa paritatis integritatis praemia quantuslibet jejuniorum vigiliarum lectionis solitudinis ac remotionis labor fuerit impensus condignus esse non poterit qui hoc industriae suae merito vel laboris obtineat Hilarius Epist dicunt hominem ad hanc gratiam qua in Christo renascimur pervenire posse per naturalem scilicet facultatem petendo quaerndo pulsando ut ideo accipiat ideo inveniat ideo introeat quia bono naturae bene usus ad istaÌ„ salvanteÌ„ gratiam initialis gratiae ope meruerit per venire Corn. Jans de haeres pela l. 8. c. 18. Item posse hominem exterrita supplici voluntate velle sanari supplex enim illa voluntas nihil est aliud quam voluntas ex fide supplicans deo pro sanitate et siquid fides non justificatorum petendo mereatur impetrationis quam meriti potius rationem habet unde cum in errore Massiliensium haereret Augustinus frequenter meriti rationem quam in fide oratione collocabat per impetrationem exponit putans inquit Augustinus lib. de praed 5. 5. c 3. fidem non esse donum dei sed à nobis esse in nobis per illam nos impetrare dei dona item ut per illam daretur quod posceremus utiliter Jansen in Aug. tom 1. lib. 8. c. 18. Vnde possit ratio reddi electorum rejectorum sive cur unus prae alio assumatur deo viz. sic habente occasionem sive colorem cur non irrationabiliter ut Cassilianus Coll. 13. loquitur sive caeco quasi modo irrefragabili aliqua constitutione inconsulta hominis voluntate gratiam salvantem uni prae aliis largiretur Hilarius in Epist ad August Prosp Epist ad August Qui autem credituri sunt quive in ea fide quae deinceps per dei gratiam sit juvanda mansuri sunt praestitisse ante mundi constitutionem There may be much seeking and using of mâ—ans and no influences Using of means would be in humility Influences not entertained breed loathâ—ng of the Gospel We may maâ—â—e influences of grace The order of the Lord in conferring of influences A confluence of heavenly influences at one time and in one work Resisting of the Word hinders not influences Refusing of Ordinances hâ—nders not influences Despising and persecuting of the Prophets obstruct influences Resisting of the operations of the Spirit is â—o obstruct influenences Praying and praising promove the Spirits influences Hardning of the heart obstructs influences Not profiting by means obstructs influences Remaining in nature obstructs influences Actings of bitterness wrath malice â—ancor sadden the spirit Influences of the spirit are contempered according to the habit of grace Sorrow worldly obstruct influences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We cannot expeditely change our spirit from carnal dispositions to spiritual but the Spirit can go and come with great celerity How the soul is under plenty of means and possibly sweet dispositions and yet under scarcity of influences These are together often praying and actual influences and dâ—ties and influences the former according to the Lord's will of precept the latter according to his will of pleasure are interwoven all along Psal 119. Of the sweet nearness betwixt love of the word and the word hid in the heart Psalm 119. v. 11. and spiritual influences Of the word hidden in the heart Felt deliverance wants not influences As the light of faith and softness easily admits an influence of grace so hardnessâ—s and rockineâ—s hardly receive any such impression 2. Vnbelief obstructs influences Influences of grace do no violence to the rational power of nilling and willing 3. Deadness hinders influences 4. Security obstructs influences 5. Atheism obstructs influences 6. The hearts unconstancy doth much obstruct the influences of God 7. Heart-deceitfulness obstructs influences 8. Pride obstructs influences humility capacitates to receive them 9 Worldly mindedness obstructs influences and heavenly mindedness promoves it 10. Fiery bastard zeal hinder influences 11. An unclean heart cannot receive influences of the Spirit 12. Malice and bitterness obstructs the influences of God 13. Worldy sorrow obstructs influences 14. False joy obstructs influences 15. Self-love obstructs influences 16. Ignorance of the Gospel and hatred of Christ obstruct the influences of the Spirit 17. Wrestling against providence obstruct the influences of God God by his influences first acts and we in the same moment of time follow him and act under him and no violence is here 18. Heavenly thoughts and spiritual consideration draw along heavenly influences as earthly and unclean thoughts extinguish influences All actings of grace go thorow the channel of a sanctified judgement which wants not influences of grace Our drawing on of sinful dispositions Keep the oyl of the Spirit clean if you would have heavenly influences to fall on the Spirit We are to act both morally and physically with the Spirit Pâ—ayers conclude not Soveraignty Heretical light hinders the spirits breathings A corrupt will hinders the spirits breathings Hating of grace and of Christ hinders influences Divers actings of the spirit in the spouse sick of love for Christ in Solomon's song of songs speak and hold forth influences of the spirit Hating of Christ Soul-loathing of God obstructs influences The Spirit gives influences where there is no knowledge Influences of the spirit are connatural to the spiritual man Where there is soul-desiring of God there be many influences Sensuality and influences of the spirit cannot be together Spiritual joy speaks strong influences Literal crying should not exceed the impulsion of the spirit within Godly sorrow may help influences How hope and audacity promove or hinder influences One affection counter-works another and hinders faith Moral acting cannot avail us without real influences of the spirit Frequent acts of faith promove influences of the spirit Hope promoves influences Sinful boldness obstructs influences Anger hindereth influences How Elisha could not prophesie by reason of anger A meek spirit is a fit work-house of influences instanced in the man Christ in Meses John Vnbelieving fear an impediment of influences The Lord seekâ— not our consent to the first infusion of a new heart We are maried to Christ before we câ—â—sent to the mariage The Lord determines free-will and does no violence to it We are inexcusable in not doing our duty though the Lord deny his necessary influence God acts in all both by the immediate influence of his power and of his peâ—son The Lord particularly leads his own Two sorts of causes one in fieri for the producing of and giving being to a thing another in facto esse for the preserving of the same thing in being God is both wayes the cause of gracious actings The right missing of influences is to miss influences special The giving of the heart to God We are more our own by law and lesse our own by the Gospel Christ cares more for his own body then the members care for themselves Christs care is now rather more when he is glorified then less
mildly p. 1 c. 12. p. 101 Whether by prayer or any other way we may wrestle out from under Gods desertions p. 1. c. 12. p. 109 Influences are given of God to various temptation p. 1 c. 12. p. 110 It s a gracious temper to weep when the Lord is absent or angry p. 1. c. 13. p. 113 Christs absence is sometimes as good as his presence p. 1 c. 13. p. 118 Sâ—metimes we may pray again the degree of God but it s not lawfull to resist his commanding will p. 1. c. 13. p. 120 We may weep over our own dry hearts when we want Influences but we cannot weep against the Lord because he gives not those Influences p 1. c. 13. p. 121 We are to meet all conditions of life with cloasing with Gods holy dispensations p. 2. c. 1. p. 123 The word is the rule of doing the spirit the real efficient cause p. 2. c. 1. p. 127. How the Lord can lay by a command supernatural duties on men impotent and dead in sin p. 2. c. 2. p 129. God in creating man is both a Creator and also a law giver p. 2 c 2. p. 138 We are to be humbled for sin original p. 2. c. 2. p. 140 How to fetch Influences p. 2. c. 3. p. 142 The fetching of Influences is by supernatural actings by the word and spirit idem How the Lord brings himself under a sort of necessity of conferring gracious Influences p. 1. c. 2. p. 147 A considerable difference betwixt the Lords promise of grace and his practise of grace p. 2. c. 3. p. 148 Civil professors are nearer to conversion and to Christ then the openly profane and flagitious p. 2. c. 3. p. 149 It requires of the dead that they live and that we must not cease from running when the Lord ceases from drawing p. 2. c. 3. p. 152 It s a sinful shift to put away duties because of indisposition p. 2. c. 3. p. 154 We are to pray away indisposition as a great affliction p. 2. c. 3. p. 155 Influence of grace are due to the saints by promise p. 156 The Lord hath given Influences by necessity of a promise idem The three persons the Father the Son and Spirit give Influences p. 2. c. 5. p. 159 The fulnesse of Influences on the man Christ ib. fluences p. 2. c. 5. 159 Christ hath the dispensing of prederminating Influences by office and covenant p. 2. c. 5. p. 161 The Influences in the Son are all for our use and good p. 2. c. 5. p. 163 The Influences of the spirit are mainely to be eyed if any have the spirit he cannot want the Influences of God p. 2. c. 6. p. 164 The glorious things which the spirit of God shews p. 2. c. 6. p. 165 The Spirit prevents nature nature prevents not the Spirit p. 2. c. 6. p. 169 We are to pray for Influences p. 2. c. 6. p. 170 Obedience is to be yeilded to the Spirit as to the Father and the Son p 2. c. 7. p. 173 Much renewal will is a note of a spiritual disposition idem There is four expressions in Scripture of wrongs we do to the Spirit 1 Vexing 2. Quenching 3 Tempting 4. Resisting p. 2. c. 7. p. 176 How to improve spiritual feelings p. 2. c. 7. p. 183 Watching is a spiritual condition and near to receive gracious Influences p. 2. c. 7. p. 184 To converse with the Saints is a mark of a spiritual condition p. 2. c. 7. p. 186 Spiritual conference frequently used speaks a spiritual condition p. 2. c. 7. p. 189 The Contents of the third part SOme influences are from God some from Satan Part 3. Ch. 1. Pag. 189 Satan keeps correspondence with the heart p. 191 It s not lawful to dispute with Satan yet with his instrument we may p. 192 Christ sought neither the temptation nor the tempter p. 193 Difference betwixt Satans instruments and these of the Lord p. 194 Christ under a necessitie of giving sanctifying influences ib. Moral and physical influences 195 Moral influences that are only moral are weak ib. Ordinary and extraordinary influences 296 Prophetical influences ib. It is dangerous to resist strong light and the influences thereof p. 197 Private and publick Church-influences ib. Strong influences under the Messiah in the New Testament p. 199 Gospel-influences are strong p. 200 Some influences are for the habit some for the actings of grace some for both p. 201 Influences proper to the head Christ and influences on the members p. 202 Mediatory influences are some way due to the broken in heart and what sort they of right have thereto A four-fold right to influences is considerable p. 203 Strong and mighty influences in Christ p. 204 Gospel-providence how far above the Law-providence of Adam p. 205 Mr Gee treats of prayer Sect. 4. p. 187 188 195. p. 207 Influences of Christ fundamental and not fundamental ib. The comfortable necessity that lies on Christ to confer influences of grace p. 208 Influences not fundamental not simply necessary p. 209 Influences of grace for the habit of saving grace and influences for a gift p. 210 How we may know when we act pray or hear c. from a gift and when we act from a grace p. 210 Some pray from a meer gift when they mistakingly imagine they pray from the saving habit of grace the mistake is habitual in hypocrites only actual hic nunc to sound believers p. 211 Grace sanctifies the gift used in all due and spiritual circumstances but the gift can never sanctifie the grace p. 213 The same word but not the same influences act upon all within the visible Church p. 214 We are not to rest upon the actings from a gift but watchfully to try when we act from a gift and when from a grace ib. Differences from the influences of grace and these of glory p. 221 The habit of grace is a permanent disposition ch 2. p. 222 The habit of grace is given through the merit and grace of Christ p. 223 From the habit of grace we perform suitable actings p. 224 Vital actions flow from supernatural habits p. 225 The difference of the habit of grace from other habits p. 226 We are to follow holy resolutions with prayer 2 godly trembling 3 faith 227 The falshood of â—owes ib. A strong habit of grace produces easie and connatural and strong actings of grace p. 229 Actions supernatural and influences suitable are some way due to the habit of grace cap. 3. p. 232 Sometimes the habit of grace is qualified with heavenly dispositions p. 233 We should pursue the dispositions of grace when they are added to the habit with spiritual actings p. 234 We are to stir up the habit of grace though deadned ib. The Lord by infusing the habit of grace comes under some necessitie to give suitable influences thereunto cap. 4. p. 235 Divers necessities under which the Lord is to confer influences of grace p. 236 Christ advocates
for the Elect yet not converted to bring them to himself p. 237 The Spirits office puts him under a necessity of giving influences p. 241 Vses from the Lords necessity of giving gracious influences p. 242 First to frame doubts about predestination to life and to misse eternal love before we misse inherent saving grace is Satans method p. 243 Whether the habit of grace may cease in the regenerate from all its opperations p. 244 The habit of grace is not eternal ib. The habit of grace ceaseth not p. 445 How many acts may we bring out of the habit of grace p. 237 There is a consenting to the temptation which is a wishing that Gods law and our lust might both stand and a virtual wishing that the law of God had never had being p. 238 Eight evidences that in the regenerate the saving habit of grace never ceaseth from emitting some influences p. 239 What dispositions spiritual are and how they differ from the habits of grace ca. 5. p. 240 Get heavenly dispositions and influences follow conaaturâ—lly p. 242 Dispositions are not ever alike but various and changeable ib. Evidences that dispositions go and come p. 243 Spiritual dispositions are different from the affections 244 There are heavenly dispositions in the mind as well as in the affections ibid Bad spiritual dispositions creep on in the children of God p. 246 There is some acting and life under much deadnesse in the regenerate ibid Many sweet spiritual actings may be under indispositions p. 247 No agreement betwixt these two Champions the flesh and the spirit p 248 Its fit to go about duties under indispositions ib Lesse of sweet real influences and more of moral influences from the word makes obedience more perfect p. 249 We can tell the actings when they are on and after they are over and gone p. 3. c. 6. p. 251. Differences betwixt spiritual heart burnings of the love of Christ and literal heat p. 252 1. Difference ib Feeling may be stronger after actings of the spirit are gone p. 253 Spiritual burning of heart leave some impression behind which literal heat doth not p. 254 2. Difference ib Improving of spiritual heat is known whereas in literal heat there is no such thing p. 3. c. 6 3 property of an heavenly disposition ib. What we are to doe under dispositions spiritual 301 Spiritual dispositions are at length victorious ib. How to get heavenly dispositions ib. 4 Property 302 Heavenly dispositions connaturally cast out acts suitable 303 5 Property 304 Heavenly dispositions cause a man act upon himself ib. The meetings of believers for godly conference is owned by the Lord cap. 11. p. 308 Small means of grace and short visits of Christ are to be highly esteemed at some time especially when love-flowings have been neglected ib. Sense is prouder then faith 309 Withdrawings of Christ teach us to try whether we have abused his manifestations formerly 310 Except we find Christ we cannot pray 311 How to judge of the nature of praying ib. Praying fitteth for praying 312 There degrees of discerning an answer ib. The real withdrawings of Christ make no change of legal interests in Christ ib. The life of grace depends on influences of grace 313 Christs right and acts in redeeming of us stand entire when we are deserted ib. What love-sickness is 314 The Lords wisdom in suspending influences of grace 315 Withdrawing of comforts upon wise and holy reasons ib. The wisedome of God appointing that we depend on him ib. How we may pray for comforts 316 How we may deprecate languishing pain in love-sickness ib. How we may pray for gracious influences 317 A two fold contradicting of the Lords will 318 Love-sickness from the want of Christ 319 As touching peace with God we have peace de jure de facto but as touching the blot and in-dwelling of sin we ought not to have peace with our selves under that blot ib. Ingredients of love-sickness 320 Pain of love-sickness ib. The righting of the complaining of the damned ib. Faith above sense 321 Faith with stronger influences then ordinary controuleth sense under desertion 322 The Idol of indignation an enemy to zeal 323 Spiritual savouriness active and passive 325 In Christ in his Spouse in his members ib. Q. Whether God commands all use of means external and internal and every part thereof p. 3. cap. 12. p. 328 Nature and grace whether grace be above natural dispositions 330 Whether grace be above natures properties 2 merits 3 actings ib. Whether God gives or denies sufficient grace to the man who does what he can 331 The natural wicked inability in all to know believe and love Christ prove there is no universal sufficient grace 332 The Jesuite Martinez de Ripalda cites divers texts for universal grace 333 That praevious actings in heathens must be the rule of the Lords giving or denying the Gospel is an unwritten tradition 335 Sinners under the fall are interdicted heirs ib. The connexion betwixt literal actings and supernatural influences p. 336 The new supernatural providence is set up by the second Adam By which the conversion of the Elect is brought to passe p. 337 The order betwixt natural and supernatural acting p. 338 What renewed and unrenewed men can do in their respective places p. 340 Corruption and temptation both increase the difficulty of using means p. 341 Influences work as God set them on ib The gracious heart may reflect upon it self in spiritual actings and purge it self ib. We may do more by the habit of grace then we do p. 342 3. Difference ib 4. Difference ib There is a sweet leading no violence spiritual in heart burning for Christ it is not so in the literal heat p 255 5. Difference the heavenly heat goes along with the Scripture opened and applyed not so in the literal heat p. 256 Hence considerable differences betwixt motions of the spirit and loose Enthysiasmes ib Literal heat is all upon the letter and forms not so as the spiritual heat p. 260 A believer may be under some straitning p. 3. c. 7. p. 262 A true and a false missing ib What straitning is and whence it is p. 263 Diverse sorts of straitnings ib Rules to be free of straitning and to get enlargment of spirit p. 264 Every heavinesse is not weakness of faith p. 265 How far we may undertake obedience upon supposal of grace ib How dispositions necessarily fetch influences ib We have not assurance to be delivered from sin hic et nunc p. 266 Except from hanious sins inconsistent with the state of saving grace ib How we are to rely on God for influences ib What enlargement of heart David speaks of Psal 119. 32 p. 267 We cannot engage in our strength of habitual grace to run in the wayes of the Lord p. 268 Isa 63. 17. O Lord why hast thou made us to erre c. opened ib. What use we are to make of our inability to run except God enlarge the heart cap. 8.
Lord had given me efficacious grace I should have been converted yet it followes not therefore I am not the culpable cause of my own non-conversion or that the Lord is to be blamed therefore p. 360 Our sinful will not the Lords refusal of power is the culpable cause of non-conversion ib School-men make conversion the purchase of free will p. 362 Sin original must be pardoned to pagans in Christ of whom they never heard p. 364 Domiuicans no less gross then Jesuits in the matter of grace free will ib There may be much seeking and using of means and no influences p. 4. c. 1. p. 369 Vsing of means would be in humility ib Influences not entertained breed loathing of the Gospel p. 370 We may mar influences ib The Lords order in conferring of influences p. 372 A confluence of influences at one time and at one work ib Resisting of the word hinders influences and so doth resisting of ordinances p. 373 Resisting of the operation of the spirit obstructs influences ib Praying and praising promote the influences of the spirit p. 374 Despising of the Prophets and persecuting of them obstruct influences ib Hardning of the heart not profitting by means obstruct influences p. 375. Remaining in nature bitternesse wrath malice rancor obstruct influences ib Influences of the spirit are contempered according to the habit of grace p. 4. c. 2. p. 276 Wordly sorrow obstructs influences p. 377 The spirits motions are swift ib Plenty of means sweet dispositions and yet scarcity of influences p. 4. c. 3. p. 379 These are often together prayer and actual influences and duties following thereupon the former according to the Lords will of precept the latter according to his will of pleasure see Psal 119. p. 381 The nearness betwixt the love of the word or the hiding of it in the heart and spiritual influences p. 382 Impediments and helps of influences ib Of the word hidden in the heart p. 383 Many evils of the heart reckoned out to the number of it which obstruct influences and the contrary promote them p. 384 As the light of faith and softness admit influences so rockiness obstruct the same p. 385 2 Vnbelief obstructs influences p. 386 Influences of grace do no violence to the rational power of â—illing and willing ib 3 Deadness 4 Security 5 Athisme p. 387 388 6 Vnconstancy of the heart 7 Deceitfulnesse and falsness of the heart p. 396 Obstruct influences p. 390. 391 TO THE GODLY READER THis Subject of Divine Influences Christian Reader is most obvious to dayly practise but a path untrodden I conceive to the travels of the pens of the godly and experienced Divines who have written practical Divinity That is called the pillar of predetermination which is indeed new and wilde Divinity to some But it 's no other way new then the new trust which the Lord hath put upon the Mediator Christ whose it is to lose none to bring many Children to Glory to cast none away who comes to him for grant an efficacious and strong but sweet and none compelling yet a mighty drawing and love-forcing violence and dominion to Christ Jesus over the proudest piece of the six days works of creation to wit over mans free-will so as insuperably and without a miss he must drive his flock to their eternal green pastours and overdrive none And modest spirits and such as are in love with truth need not contend for me I shall desire none to be farther in love with the Lords strong flection bowing and turning of mans will whithersoever God will then we may save the holy and strong dominion of the soveraign Lord that he may have a more powerful mastery over the entrance of the free and contingent acts of the will of men and Angels then the creatures themselves have And reason would say that soveraigne and independent former of all of whom through whom for whom are all things Rom. 11. should be above the clay Hence these introductory considerations by way of preface 1. There cannot be a knocking without but there must be hearing within Cant. 5. 1. for the Lords knocking internal whether at first or renewed conversion hath something peculiar as hearing and learning of the Father John 5. 45. hath something of which a natural man is not capable and so hath instructing with a strong hand Isa 8. 11. If Christ had spoken to the graves and corps neer to Lazarus corps Come forth as he speaks indefinitly to all in the Gospel Come to me believe in Christ and rebuke such as will not come John 5. 40. yet all should not be raised out of the grave as Lazarus 2. It 's the same letter and sound of gracious word that comes to all the hearers Acts 16. and to Lydia but the same heart opening of the spirit goes not along as many externally hear the noise of the report of Gospel-tidings to whom the arm of the Lord is not revealed Acts 16. 13 14. it 's better experiencedly to feel then literally to search how the word is the chariot the Spirit the driver of the chariot 2. Such as receive the ingraffed word or the word and Spirit shall not much dispute how or by what clift quâ rimâ the Lord came in here he is now the word is the instrument the blind mans word John 9. 25. one thing I know that whereas I was blind now I see is enough though some cannot write a chronicle or tell the history or aim how place manner of their conversion 3. Some are troubled how Soveraignty of quickning influences in the gratious Lord who quickens hic nunc in every duty and withdraws his soveraign concurrence as he best pleaseth can consist with our debt of duty It 's safest to look to duty and the commanding will to rise up and be doing and not to dazle the wit with disputing the soveraignty of God nor to enquire into his latent decreeing will 4. A gracious heart is so taken up with care to pay the rent of commanded duties as he hath no leasure to argue why and if the Lord had decreed to give me quickning influences I should not thus decline The thesis of an heart of unbelief is a more edifying them to dispute against and to weep over then to quarrel with and agitate the question concerning the Lords withdrawing of his congruous applying of the word to the heart or his praescience and permissive decrees duty is mine Soveraignty is his 5. Faith supposeth this truth though saving influences be wanting and holy Soveraignty withdraw them for reasons far above the reach of Angels and mens capacities yet it is my sin that I lay under unresisted deadness It may be asserted that it is a sinful inclination in us to make the high decree of God our Bible and to be unwilling to be ruled by the revealed will of God So Evah was lesse willing to believe the revealed threatning in the day thou eatest thou shalt die and most bent to
106. 9. He rebuked the red Sea also and it was dried up God by the interposition of the faith of his own will not have strong walls to stand Heb. 11. 30. but they must fall nor Lions to eat the prey Verse 33. nor a violent fire to burn nor the sword to devour 34. As 2. They act at his command Psal 78. 26. He caused the East wind to blow in the Heavens and by his power he brought in the South wind whether this be by a strong terminating influence which displeaseth adversaries of grace and providence or some other way we contend not for words but if the Scripture hold forth as it doth that the Lord by his strong and invincible dominion doth indeclinably and without any possible failing bring forth his decreed effect some impulsion of God immanent transient or mixed which is terminate upon all second causes there must be for as he can and doth hinder naturall causes to work as the Sunne to move towards his down-going Josh 12. 13. Isa 38. 8. the Lyon to eat the man whereas he did fear the ass 1 Kings 13. 28. so he is the father and cause of all things that fall out Job 38. 28. Hath the rain a father or who hath begotten the drops of dew 29. Out of whose womb came the yce and the hoary-frost of Heaven who hath gendered it 31. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion This teacheth that Job cannot nor can any creature at his nod but the Lord can and he onely binds up or le ts out the influences of Pleiades the starres which rise in the Spring and bring forth flowers and hearbs and orders the course of Orion which bringeth Winter and order the starres that rise in the South and in the North. 34. Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds that abundance of waters may cover thee See his actings 3. His influences are in things small as in the falling of a Sparrow to the earth not one hair of the head but it is numbred by him Luke 21. 18. Matth. 10. 29 30 31. Not a gourd groweth nor a worm eats it but at his command Jonah 4. 6 7. Amos 4. 7 8 9. Joel 1. 1 2 3 4. Psal 105. 29 30 31 32 33. c. he hath an hand in the bird-nests building Psal 104. 17 18. And 4. The actings of the Lord are in great things as the translation of Kingdoms Dominions and Thrones Dan. 4. 32. Jer. 27. 5 6 7. In all the rises and fallings of Princes the Starres of whatever magnitude Isa 40. 21. 1 Sam. 2. 7 8. Psalm 76. 12. 5. His actings are in matter of lots that seem to be ruled by fortune and chance Prov. 16. 33. Genes 49. Deut. 33. compared with Josh 14. 1 2 3. 6. Especially in bowing the free will and determining all the actions of evil angels 1 Kings 22. 21 22 23. Job 1. 6 7 8. Job 2. 1 2 3. Gen. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. Matth. 8. 29 30 31. and good Luke 2. 9 13. Matth. 28. 1 2 3. Acts 1. 20. 2 Thes 1. 7. leading and determining the free will of all men the King Prov. 21. 1. the Prince Gen. 43. 13. Esther 4. 16 17. compared with Chap. 5. 2. c. 7. 2 3. he graciously enclines the will and hearts of men Deut. 30. 6. Jer. 32. 39 40. Ezek. 36. 27. as the Saints pray Psal 119. 33 34 36 88. Psal 86. 11. Cant. 1. 4. He hardneth the heart and blinds the mind as in his judgement he pleaseth Job 12. 16. Ezek. 14. 9. Exod. 14. 8. Deut. 2. 30. 2 Sam. 12. 11 12. Esay 6. 9 10. Matth. 13. 14 15. John 12. 37 38 39 40. Rom. 1. 24 25 26 27 28. Rom. 11. 8. And many such things are with him the more spiritually minded any is the more bent is the heart to follow and eye God in all his actings and he shall see how wise in heart the steeresman is who watcheth at the helm and it shall appeare what precious thoughts take up the believer who sees such millions and numberless numbers of influences with all the drops of rain hail dew falling between the creation and the dissolving of the world all which he binds in his garment Prov. 30. 2. and what numbers of influences he joyns to all the blasts of winds and storms which he gathers in is fists ibid. what influences of the Almighty must there be at all the actings stirrings and motions of Angels in Heaven of damned spirits of men elect and reprobate of birds beasts creeping things fishes in the wise connection of all these with the Lords intended end And if this be observed suppose the body of the Heavens which in its wide bosome contains all were broken and fell down in many thousand pieces Faith in the infinite wisdome goodnesse and power of God will bid the believer be silent and sleep and hope within his own garment God excellently rules all the best of created things next to that precious thing Christ man is the Church and the Lord will specially care for that and for me among the rest 3. No doubt we are brutish and look to all the stirrings with much Atheisme and little faith as if all stirrings in Nature Societies and Kingdoms were set on work by the sway of Nature and blind Fortune without God as a wheel rolling about with the mighty violence of a strong arm moves a long time after the arm of the mover is removed Or suppose a pair of Charet-wheels were letten loose in the top of a huge Mountain and should move down some hundred thousands of Millions of miles for hundreds of years after the man who set them first a work were dead So we fools believe that God gave a mighty strong shake or some Omnipotent impulsion to all causes natural free and contingent to Heaven and Earth Sea and Land to all Creatures in them Angels and Men and did bid them be a going for he must sleep and could not actually stir them any more Nor can we see God in all and that he contrived this that one should rise early and eat the bread of sorrow and yet be poor another should be wise admirably and want bread another fight valiantly and be foiled and a man run swiftly and lose the race Psal 127. 1 2 3. Eccles 9. 11. and that much sowing hath little reaping Hag. 1. 6. for Hab. 2. 13. Behold is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people should labour in the very fire and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity Chaldaea doth sweat and pine her self for the very wind and nothing We see not that nature miscarries and parts with child when his good providence who rules all is not Mid-wife and a barren-womb brings forth many births and she that is no Mother hath a rich issue when soveraignity pleases this is my faith and comfort CHAP. III. Hence to
descend more particularly to enquire 1. What influences are 2. Whencâ— they come 3. The necessity of influences 4. How they are above us and of the Soveraignty of him who best ows them 5. What we may doe to fetch them INfluences are acts of God concurring with created causes under him and a sort of continued Creation as God of nothing makes all things so in his providence he gives a day to all borrowed beings in their being preserved by him and they are the Lords debtors in being acted by him or then they could not stir nor move 2. The same free goodnesse which is a sort of grace which moved God to create the Sun and give it being so also â—â—ts him to give influences to the motions and actings of the Sun the end that moves the Man to make the Plough and the Cart moves him to draw the Plough and drivâ— the Cart by Beasts so that in reference to the end there is debâ—tum quoddam connaturale some connatural dueness of influences all Creatures are dead Cyphers which sigâ—ifie nothing except the influence of God add a figure to them and they lie dead if he stir them not Some Cows let not down their Milk but to their own Calves and the Creatures are as Pictures and Idols who let out no Efficacy no Vertue except the Lord act upon them Sometimes the Sea ebbs not the Wind blows not the Sun shines not the Fire burns not because this influence is as it were the Charm that is a wanting and he hath a sort of a checklock upon all second causes 3. Though God move and must act in all in causes natural and free so as in some sense he must concur in willing and nilling yet he out of Soveraignty of grace stands more aloofe in bestowing influences to gracious and supernatural nilling and willing for Predestination and free Election to glory here hath place for that he prepared in his eternal decree so many outlettings and emanations of free acts of grace to carry to glory so many selected Angels and Men and denyed these outgoings of free love to others he intending they should be to Angels and Men both their grace and song of praise he hath not given out such refined influences of free love to other Creatures to the motions of Sun and Moon to the Seas ebbing and flowing 4. Q. What then is the fountain cause of gracious influences and breathings of the Spirit Ans Sure Jesus Christ must be the meritorious and fountain cause of such influences For 1. We suppose that Christ is the head of the elect Angels God having purposed to save man of grace he gave this mighty separating influence distinguishing the Standing and Elect Angels from the falling and reprobate Angels else it cannot be said they are Elect Angels as 1 Tim. 5. 21. nor can their standing be of free grace for they could not stand except the Lord had chosen them to stand as the means as he chose them to glory as to the end except the Lord had joyned his predeterminating acting to cause them to stand and reconciled them Colos 1. 20. to himself giving to them medicinal confirming grace that they never should be sick Now the Elect Angels are the special Messengers and New Covenant Officers miniâ—tring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1. 14. And the Angels Ezek. 1. are acted in all their motions by that Jehovah whose glory Isaiah saw Isa 6. 1 2 3. John 12. 37. of which Jehovah also Ezekiel 1. v. 28. as v. 12. And the four living creatures went every one straight forward whither the Spirit was to go they went and they turned not when they went And also verse 20. They are then rightly called the Angels of the Lord Jesus 2 Thes 1. 7. for they cover their faces it is noâ— blushing for sin and their feet with wings Isa 6. while they stand before and see the face of their Soveraign and high Master and so its clear that the actings of special and supernatural providence toward and about the redeemed Church come from Christ as head of Angels and as the heir of all things who makes all things new Heb. 1. 2 3. Rev. 21. 5. and who works with the father Joh. 5. 17. in a new-covenant providence to make new Heavens and new Earth and to act all for the elects sake Colos 1. 16. 17. yea and this Spirit at whose direction the living creatures move and rest come and go Zech. 1. 12 20. is the same spirit promised and sent by Christ John 16. 7 13 14. of which Christ he shall receive of mine and give it to you by the influences of this Spirit sent by Christ are the Redeemed led Rom. 8. 14. directed Acts 16. 6 9 10 14. sealed and confirmed Eph. 4. 30. having received the earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 1. 22. taught guided the Word made effectual John 16. 13. convinced of sin and throughly rebuked vers 7 8 9. comforted Joh. 14. 16. and the memory sanctified and quickned to remember necessary truths Joh. 14. 26. and the whole man made able by the anointing for all things 1 John 2. 20 27. Hence these influences of grace are from the spirit not as from the third person of the blessed Trinity simply for so the spirit is the power of God sometimes as Judge sitting and by a Judicial power making tormenting convictions dreadfully effectual upon the consciences of Divels Matth. 8. 29. Luke 4. 34 35. of which the chains of darknesse may be a part 2 Pet. 2. 4. Jude v. 6. as also neither from the spirit as the power of God Creator Job 26. 13. Job 32. 8. in making and governing all Psal 104. 30. but from the Spirit as the fruit and purchase of Christs death and merits and as saving grace is from Christ the fountain so also the saving influences of Christ as Mediator and of stirring us up to will and do Phil. 2. 13. and to stand and persevere in the state of grace must be dispensed covenant ways Jerem. 32. 3 37 38 39 40. Isa 59. 20 21. Isa 54. 10 11 12. by his bloud So Christ speaketh to the spirit Cant. 4. 16. Stir up thou North wind come forth thou South blow upon my garden that the spice thereof may flow out Where Christ commands influences of the spirit of the North and South wind though of contrary qualities of cold and heat moist and dry both in sharp rebukes and sweet consolations to fall upon his Church and garden and it is his desire as Spouse and Mediator that the Spirit breath upon and make efficacious the word otherwise there is but deadnesse Ezech. 37. 9. Come from the four winds O wind How upon these slain that they may live John 3. 8. And the flowing of the spices is the souls being quickned revived comforted and the graces increased by the breathings of the spirit Hence 1. the
fear that Christ shall be wanting in bestowing influences so do many weak ones is a broken half faith looking upon Christ as half a Saviour what he that died to purchase the spirit shall he not carry on the work of redemption by applying it and carrying on of what he hath begun Indeed among men he who made the Ship by art hath neither art nor power to command wind and tide for sailing for they are done by diverse powers the one by a created the other by an uncreated power but here the same merit of bloud which purchased grace habitual did also make due and connatural in its own kind actual influences of saving grace to carry on the work hence a case of Christian and supernatural prudence it is so to fear our own sinful weaknesse and to be humbled and cast down for our propension to fall away as to believe that constant and everlasting love shall work to will and to do to the end Then 1. tormenting Popish fear Ah I shall I may fall away 2. And the weak practical doubting of this it may be I shall perish I cannot stand out And 3. the law spirit of bondage I cannot be saved who am so sinfully weak and wicked have all three this in commune an undervaluing of the power of the free love and an overvaluing of the strength of corruption as if wickednesse and he that in the world were greater then he that is in these who are born of God 1 John 4. 4. and stronger then grace for its natural to be of that opinion that grace worketh not irresistibly prevailingly and with all might according to his glorious power Collos 1. 11. and according to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceeding great power by which he raised Christ from the dead Ephes 1 18 19. and so while legally we distrust and fear our own weaknesse we do unbelievingly doubt of the mighty power of grace though we see it not for to see unbelief it is so spiritual a sin is almost to overcome it among all sins it is most invisible and best seen with the light of the Spirit faith sees well unbelief but unbelief can neither see faith nor it self 2. There is required of believers the exercise of faith in laying hold on the promises of actual influences from Christ the Mediator John 15. 2. Every branch that leareth fruit in me for that must be repeated the Father purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit Ephes 1. 3. Blessed be God who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Chriâ—t but to cause us will and do is a spiritual blessing Ephes 2. 13. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made neer not by Redemption only but actual believing in the bloud of Christ. 2. Ephes 6. 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit By the influences of that spirit whom Christ sent in his own name John 14. 26. 3. If the spirit glorifie Christ by receiving of Christ and shewing it to Christs own Disciples John 16. 14. then all the influences of the spirit in acts gracious when the spirit teacheth and bringeth to remembrance all things John 14. 26. convinceth of sin John 16. 8. guideth and leadeth John 16. 13. Rom. 8. 14. mortifieth Rom. 8. 13. quickneth Rom. 8. 10 11. comforteth and sealeth and confirmeth John 14. 16. Ephes 4. 30. 2 Cor. 1. 22. must be done by influences of the spirit received from Christ For saith Christ He shall receive of mine Heb. 13. 13. By Christ therefore let us offer to God the sacrifice of praise continually 4. Also what we suit from God in the name of Christ that we suit from Christs merits and death But we ask all which we ask in Christs name John 14. 14. John 15. 17. And therefore do obtain from God for Christs sake and the merits of his death the inclining of the heart to his testimonies to be led in his way not to be led into temptations to persevere to the end to be taught his way and if there were any grace such as all gracious influences are which comes not from Christ in whom it is and from whose fulnesse it is it must be referred to another cause then to Christ 5. All the promises are yea and amen in Christ 2 Cor. 1. and so must the promise of perseverance be Jer. 31. 39 40. Isa 54. 10. Isa 59. 21. and so the promise of influences of grace to persevere 6. Christs undertaking as High Priest Advocate and Intercessor is to carry on and perfect as Mediator all that are given to him of the Father and to lose none but to raise them up at the last day and to give them life eternal John 17. 1 2. 11. 12. John 6. 37 38 39 40. 1 Cor. 1. 7 8. 1 John 2. 1 2. Heb. 7. 22 23 24 25. Heb. 9. 13 14 15 16 17 24 25 26 27 28. Heb. 10. 10. John 14. 16. Luke 22. 31 32. Rev. 8. 3 4 5. 7. Christ as head by the influence of life and saving grace acts upon all the members by quickening them to will and to doe Ephes 4. 16. Eph. 2. 21 22. Eph. 1. 21. 22. Eph. 2. 1 2 3 4 5. 8. Christ as King gives repentance and remission Acts 5. 31 32. Then must he by that power royal give influences to acts of repentance and of faith 9. As Prophet he opens the heart to understand the Scriptures Luke 24. 45. Act. 9. 17. and so must give influences for that effect Hence are we to look for the watering of the garden of red wine every moment from Christ the fountain of life and to know that we should wither from the root if Christ withdraw his influence and so grace puts us under a necessity of grace to carry on the work of salvation 2. Yea it is to believe Christ is but an imperfect and half a Saviour and wanting in his Office if we doubt he shall give influences to perfect to the end what he hath begun then branches out of Christ and cut off from him must wither 1. Make sure union with the Vine-tree if you would be sure of growing to the end 2. Know the way to the well of life be much with Christ and lie and be neer to the well if you would have influences every moment 3. The most glorious and shining Professors that are not in Christ shall turn Apostates a plant above the earth with borrowed earth on the top of an house may grow for a short space but shall wither 4. Heathen influences from a Creator without Christ shall not bear you out the vertues of Tully of Seneca Regulus are of that nature that they may dry up 5. Yea weak Believers doubting that Christ shall give influences to work in you to will and to doe is 1. To question whether Christ shall
only there is a negative withdrawing of influences upon the Lord's part which they want with a sort of natural yielding to the want thereof and yet they have and keep still their natural power to act actu primo as the first cause shall set them on work And the very like may be said of moral Agents God withdraws his influence they sin but find no positive violence comming from the Lord 's withdrawing to restrain them or impose upon them and they connaturally and with a virtual willingness yield to such withdrawings and keep an inferiour dominion over their own actings Hence 1. Moral Agents are to set to work to doe duties not to wait upon God's acts of influences but they are to act as if the influences of God were in their power for the influence from Heaven to the duty belongs to God he does not lay formal commands upon us to have or to want his influences and the duty is ours but we love more to look to God and judge anxiously his providence of withdrawing of influences then upon our own duty It s strange I judge his holy withdrawings and not my own sinful omissions 2. No man is to complain of the Lord 's withdrawing of influences You are joyful and well content to want them Men put out their own eyes and yet complain God hath made them blind Of this more hereafter But this Argument may be retorted and unpossible it is to defend the Dominion and Soveraignty of God by these Principles so if it be not in the dominion and soveraignty of God to procure or hinder the acts of final obedience or disobedience he cannot be Master of salvation and of the certain number of the saved but the free-will of man must be absolute ever here and the salvation of any must be physically impossible to the soveraign Lord. But by the Adversaries way it s not in the dominion and soveraignty of God to procure or to hinder the acts of final obedience or disobedience of any but it must be absolutely in the power of created free-will all things needful to be done both upon the part of the Lord's Decree and of the Lord's Influences being done to nill or will obey or disobey And 2. its in the power of created free-will to doe or obey and to refuse or disobey And 3. to have the strongest influences of God in its dominion and created power or to want them 4. Created freewill first stirs and concurs by order of nature before the soveraign Lord joyn his influence all these be the Principles of Pelagians Jesuits Arminians so shall created free-will have the dominion above and before the soveraign Lord of all the acts of obedience of all the chosen of God as to their number who shall be saved who not how many how few CHAP. VI. Q. Whether or no are we to believe pray praise read confer only then when the Spirit actually moves us to believe pray praise c. and not otherwise 1. Duties are to be done under spiritual withdrawings 2. The precept and the influence differ 3. We are and may pray at fixed hours THe Question is the same of elicite acts of love fear hope faith and of imperate acts of praying hearing praising only the difference is hardly can we set a time to believing the object sometime wakens us Psal 56. 3. What time I am afraid I le trust in thee otherwise that binds ever which is Psal 62. 8. Trust in him at all times The Lord hath more fixed a time for praying continually and for praising the Lord always 1 Thes 5. Psal 146. 1. 2. The question is alike in all actions and in spiritual and supernatural actions as whether the Husbandman may Plow and Sow at fit seasons or only when the Lord the cause of causes joyns his influence for these and the like are no less impossible without the connatural influences of God then the acts of praying believing without the supernatural influences of grace Now we would think it ridiculous should the Husbandman never plow but only when he is disposed to plow suppose he sleep longer in the morning then he should 3. The actual Influence cannot be a Rule for we cannot know or feel the actual influence of God Creator or of Grace but only when we are aworking 4. The question of the obligation is one thing and the question of ability to pray is another for Magus yet in the Gall of bitterness is under the obligation of a Commandement Acts 8. 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thoughts of thine heart may be forgiven thee And in a state of nature he is most unable and so far more indisposed to pray and repent And the believing Thessalonians are under a command to pray continually 1 Thes 5. 17. to praise to rejoyce ver 16. 18. what ever their indisposition be Now though the man fal'n in Adam be unable to keep and do the Law and natural men living in the visible Church be unable indisposed to believe in Christ and to pray yet except we say that such are under neither Law nor Gospel we cannot say that men because of their wretched estate are not obliged to pray believe love Christ walk with God Libertines say its unlawful and a taking of the Name of God in vain to aym at praying when the Spirit withdraws Suppose we could not reconcile our inability and our indisposition to pray nor the acting of strong grace and of weak will yet when God hath undeniably commanded duties and promised in the new Covenant grace and gives the new heart and the habit of grace no man hath warrant upon the account of the Lord 's denying influence to abstain from duties for upon the same account one might cast himself in the Fire and another in the Water why it may be the Lord shall deny his influence to the fire and water to burn or consume us and so the water shall not overwhelme me nor the fire consume me though I wickedly cast my self in fire and water Now what Familists and Libertines may object on the contrary should be heard Obj. 1. We are never to take the Name of God in vain but to pray without the acting of the Spirit is to take the Name of God in vain Ans The Antecedent is true we are never to take the Name of God in vain nor obliged to any sin but the Consequence is naught therefore we are not to pray nor obliged to pray except the Spirit either by disposition facilitate us or actually move us For the disposition or actual moâ—ion of the Spirit is neither our Rule nor a part of our rule For 1. The command to pray is the common obligiâ—g Rule to both Elect and Reprobate and obligeth all equally but neither the spiritual disposition nor the saving acting of the Spirit so equal to all is our Rule 2. The command is exposed to every one to
Master who gives all the Kingdomes of the World to his Worshippers then God who denies Bread to his own wel-beloved Son thus doth Satan but in another kind fret So Gen. 3. it s a bad providence that Adam and Evah are not as knowing as God and Luke 5. 34. What have we to doe with Christ But may not conscience accuse providence in the Lord 's withdrawing of grace especially being wakened Ans The Conscience of Divels and the Damned is awakned either penally or sinfully these may be distinguished here the Conscience as penally wakned by the Judge primarily gnaws and torments it self for sin as punished I have sinned saith Judas and he casts down the seven pieces feeling the worm but as the Conscience is sinfully wakned by it self in blaspheming the God of Heaven Rev. 16. 9 11. because of pain it also frets against providence but is is not pain'd for the want of saving grace and holy influences which might have prevented sin yea their blasphemings of God eternally is a seal and a closeing with the state of unrenewed nature which is never moved for sin but wrestles against the providence which sometime did permit sin which now hath such tormenting consequences though the conscience in the mean time being taken with the Iustre and apparent good in sin did also close with the opportunity of sin and with providence opening the way to tentations Prov. 7. 15. and seek such a providence Gen. 39. 11 12. and embrace it Mark 14. 10 11. yet is there saving good in a regulated spiritual complaining of the want of saving influences So as 1. They be not looked on as misdeeds of providence and we say not the Lord might have lent me the influence to such a self-denying death as Abraham's journey in aiming to sacrifice his only son for God but he would not 2. It s good if there be a holy submissive complaining of the want of gracious influences as terminated upon duties Isa 63. 17. O Lord why hast thou made us to erre from thy ways and hardened our hearts from thy fear and not looked on as withdrawings of meer providence Though there be a holy claimbring to God ver 19. we are thine yet we are so thine as thy grace is Soveraign Thou never bearest rule over them they were not called by thy name and yet no praise or thanks to Israel that they were called by his Name rather then the Heathen 3. We may pray for and so earnestly suit and desire influences as Draw me quicken me encline my heart unto thy testimonies Therefore we may pray against withdrawings of influences as sad privations of dreadful consequents and so much is held forth in that Petition lead us not unto temptation 4. Yet so as there is no deserving in us of having eyes to see and spiritual influences to see to hear to perceive with a new heart Deut. 29. 2 3. as its not the merit of one part of the Earth the South that it lie nearer the Sun then another Northern part nor the good deserving of one Horse that he wear a golden Saddle and a silken Bridle rather than another this would be minded What am I Lord as it was Christ's mind to cry down works in point of salvation yet not to cry down all actings by way of duty in the New-covenant way Therefore 5. since grace may be desired and all gracious influences are grace so is there a conformity betwixt the believers will suiting influences and the revealed and approving will of God I say not his high decree and ordaining will for sure New-Testament or New-Covenant prayers new oyl and new supply of grace do import a fresh supply and watering of influences to be furnished to believers especially since we may pray Hallowed be thy Name in me thy Kingdome come to me thy will be done by me in the Earth is it is in Heaven 5. We may and ought to suit of God what the Lord promiseth in the Covenant of grace but the Lord promiseth to bestow predeterminating grace in this Covenant as after shall be cleared Now the faultiness of this I will not pray untill the Spirit act upon me and move me to pray is seen in that it importeth that the moral ground of praying is not the command of God pray continually and that command call upon me in the day of trouble which is most false for another warrant for all moral obedience then precept promise or practise can no man give yea it supposeth that the warrant of prayer is the influence of grace Now the influence of grace is the efficient helping cause not the rule not the objective cause of either our praying or any acts of our obedience Yea it is the way of Enthysiasts to make divine impulsions and not the word of precept the Rule of our obedience 2. This I will not pray untill the Spirit first act upon me must have either this sense I will not pray untill the Lord first give a praying disposition or untill the Lord first actually breath upon me This latter saith indeed I will not pray until I pray for the Lord 's actual influence includes praying The former cannot be said For there is no warrant to disobey the command pray continually untill I get a new disposition from Heaven for then might all praying of the renewed be shifted and the three Disciples in the garden might have said to Christ our Master bids us pray but we are heavy with sleep and indisposed and cannot pray and so must we be excused 2. Upon the same account Magus Acts 8. 21. and other unrenewed men should shift the command of praying for while we be translated out of nature to the Kingdome of grace we want the habit of grace and spirit of adoption by which only we can pray acceptably 3. How unsavoury shall this be a man falls over a Bridge and is a drowning another is going to the place of Execution to die another is sick to death all of them may by this shift say we must not pray lest we take the Name of God in vain untill the Spirit breath upon us heavenly impressions of speaking in the Spirit to God 4. This shift cannot stand to suspend praying until the Spirit breath from on high for we are to pray for the spirit 's breathing and for teaching quickning enlarging of heart that we may pray and praise Psal 51. 15. Psal 119. 36 37 40 48. Wind fetches wind here and fire begets fire as cold flint creates hot fire so the Atheists let them pray that can pray I 'me no Minister But it hath this I am ready to pray but the blame of my not praying is to be laid on the Spirit for the wind blows not but this is but witty laziness as when the Sea-man will sleep and attempt no Sea-voyage and lay the blame which is his fall upon the wind which blows not after his mind it appears he is but a sleeper
ever withdrawing of the Spirit or of his influences there be its true what promises of a richer dispensation of grace are made in the Messiah Zech. 12. 10. Ezech. 11. 19 20. Isa 55. 11 12. Isa 44. 1 2 3 4 c. are to be considered by us but yet so no Scripture saith Stand still and act no duties until the Spirit of grace first strongly breath upon the heart that is to say no obeying of God is to be gone about until feeling of the breathings of the Spirit go before faith and praying and all duties and what is this but a tying of the spirit to our spiritual senses men then cannot be accused nor condemned for not calling upon God and not believing because natural men truly can say we could not walk before on◠Guide nor sayl without our Steers-man the Spirit Now the Spirit 's drawings we never felt and this were to render the Word of God useless it s enough to us the command cries to the conscience the voice of the Lord sounds in the Word and none can alledge any contrary actings of the Spirit As also how shall the feelings of the Spirit be known but by the Word and the Spirit not simply but the spirit with the word is the only Guide since we are bidden try the spirits whether they are of God or not 1 John 4. 1. and as hard it were to put converted ones to such a method it were to render Duties suspicious and dangerous and to condemn Scripture-light as guilty of darkness 2. We are now after Scripture is closed and the compleat Canon given to us to follow no duty but what is warranted by the Word and that the Spirit alone works not by the Word it must then be wild-corn and no part of the Lord's husbandry and so not from the Lord that we are not to pray while first we feel the actings of the Spirit for that position is both beside and contrary to the Word Something might be said for this we are not to eat while we feel hunger nor to sleep while we feel drouziness though if eating and sleeping be looked on as duties it cannot bear the weight of Scriptural truth yet to look to feelings as a Rule before we obey a Command of God and to make the feelings of breathings our Rule hath no colour of truth Ass 4. It may be looked on as another extremity to look to no actings nor dispositions of the heart before we pray for though the disposition of the heart be no rule morally obliging us yet to fall upon duties looking only to the Rule knowing the duty is a duty and sutable to the Rule and no more but to flie to acting in our own strength is not good For 1. It is required that beside it be an uncontroverted duty other Spiritual and Evangelick circumstances would be considered as whether Jehu intend the honour of God in killing the Priests of Baal whether the intended honour of God breath upon Pharisees in praying and in almes-giving or if only a thirst to be seen of men do blow the trumpet and encourage men to the work 2. The frame of the heart in doing would be looked to as we suppose Elisha did right in that he would not prophecy while as a passion of Anger was upon him and therefore called for a Ministrel to sing a Psalm and then the Spirit of the Lord acted upon him and whether while wrath is on pure hands can be lifted up to God see 1 Tim. 2. 8. possible out of eager opposition to Enthysiasts and Libertines we run on another extreme that we rush on duties upon no other account but only the Scripture is clear Do this in remembrance of me and that warranted us to eat at the Lord's Supper prepared or not prepared but to rush on the dutie while some preparation or self-examination go before is clear against another command of God Let a man try and examine himself and so let him eat some duties are of that nature that ex natura rei of themselves they require fixed preparations as the Priests sanctifying of themselves and these who offered before they came to the Altar Psal 26. 6. Exod. 40. 31 but whether this may warrant none to pray while they first prepare themselves to pray before they pray by praying and so that prayer which is preparatory must be prepared by another preparatory prayer and so without end spiritual preparations must in infinitum go on before spiritual preparations is another question A fixed and set preparation before every duty is not requisite but sure a preparing of the heart to seek the Lord should go before solemn actions 1 Sam. 7. 3. Job 11. 13. 1 Chron. 29. 18. 2 Chron. 12. 13. and beyond all controversie we sin against God and stumble many in headlong rushing upon duties not looking to a spiritual frame of heart in comming to the house of God and not taking heed to the feet and in yoaking the Cart before the Horse When we first sacrifice and then hear Eccles 5. 1. godly prudence which dwels with wisedom saith both a fools bolt is soon shot and a fools sacrifice is soon offered Some receive the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suddenly Mark 4. 16. 1. Sayling is more safely delay'd in the time of an extreme storm and sowing when the wind is mighty then attempted and if the affections be raveiled and the heart smoaking with some fiery disorders that distemper would be mourned for and prayed against headlong and precipitate duties done in hast argue great profanness and irreverence to the holy Lord whom we serve and worship 2. They speak an irreverent not eying of God 3. Want of bendedness of heart in holy duties I speak not this as if praying either set or instructed or ejaculatory suits were to be delayed Ass 5. To wait upon the flowings of the Spirit hath not one single meaning Libertines waiting on the actings of the spirit and there professed feriation and abstinence from praying hearing is a sad delusion 1. It s a hardning of the heart while it is to day and then the foolish Virgins had good reason to be foolish and to neglect the market and buy no Oyl while the market of Mercy was gone and over why the spirit blew never fair for their spiritual trading and therefore they are to be excused in that they sleeped all their life 2. It s a confounding of the Rule the Word of God and of the Spirit which quickens the Word and makes it effectual 3. It s to excuse all wicked men and to loose them from the law of God We can doe no better blame the Spirit say they which blows not and many other absurdities hence follow 2. To wait on the Spirit 's flowings that is with a lesse measure of the spirit to fetch more and by two talents to gain four is so lawful a waiting for the breathings of the spirit as to plow and wait
the Pharisees meets the words of rebuke in Christ's mouth and bitterness in Herod resounds when John Baptist does rebuke his incest and adultery Take it for a sad condition when there is a practical contrariety and hatred betwixt the heart and the word of the Lord a heart loathing of the word and a rejecting thereof is dreadful whereas the esteeming of the word sweeter then the honey or the honey comb more then thousands of silver and gold the mans treasure his heritage his souls delight and love night and day his work meditation study wisedom do proclaim much of the new creation the word being the seed of the new birth and new creations must love the mother seed it s own native beginning as the streams are of the same nature and likeness with the fountain the Word tries all mens hearts see Joh. 7. 40 41 42 43 44 45 46. Luk. 4. 21 22 23 24 25 28 29. Acts 2. 12 13 37 38 39. Acts 7. 54 55 c. Acts 13. 38 42 43 44 45 46. Acts 14. 1 2 3 4 5 c. Acts 17. 34 35 36. Some believe some mock the natural man cannot close with the word Now Christ is given as a Leader and Commander to the people Isa 55. 4. charge him not as a misleading and a rash guide because he carries you through a wildernesse where there is neither flood nor fountain on the Earth nor dew or rain from Heaven you are withered and no influences come from him let faith complain of the barrenness of the Earth but justifie the driness of the clouds it s the wisedom of God that teacheth the believer to weep because he wants rain and moistness and is sinfully dry and yet to submit to him who denies rain and dew for he gives not here upon just grounds and holily I want deservedly for my just demerit Part. II CHAP. I. 1. God acts upon the creature first and not the creature first upon God 2. The Lord's dominion of influences on free will 3. Nor are we to be idle and sleep because the Lord is Master of his own influences 4. The Lord commands not us to have or want influences 5. Influences are not our warrant to act but the efficient cause thereof HItherto much hath been said of the Soveraignty of the Lord in divine influences Now are we to speak of the way of getting these influences and of the necessity of them and how we may fetch the wind 1. By natural actings 2. By supernatural actings by the word and promise 3. By the efficient causes of influences especially by the Spirit Hence the division of influences 1. By the infused habit of grace 2. By spiritual dispositions In all which our faith praying using of grace have their several influences What we may doe to fetch heavenly influences from God is above my reach to determine only let these Propositions be considered Prop. 1. God by order of nature first acts upon the creature and gives his stirring up influence to it We cannot in genere causae physicae first breath upon God he prevenes the Sun and the Sun riseth or riseth not as the Lord pleaseth to act upon it but no second causes do prevene the first or universal cause the Sun and Heaven do act first upon the Rose but the Rose doth not first act upon the Sun and Heaven Job 37. 7. He sealeth up the hand of every man that all men may know his works c. By the breath of God frost is given this shows that the host of creatures in Heaven and in Earth and the Sea are all dead passive sleepy cyphers and can do nothing if the Lord do not stir them God must be Father Lord and Author of all created actings and faith would without carefulness or unbelief commit all to so wise a Steersman though Phil. 4. 6. the Sea shall drown me the Fire consume me the Air suffocate me yet I desire to hear and obey that Be careful in nothing but pray Matth. 6. I shall perish for want ver 25. Take no thought They will kill me if I confess Christ Fear not Matth. 10. 28 29. your Father cares for two sparrows and for every hair of your head O but the Ship I am in is a sinking Matth. 8. 26. Why are ye fearful waken Christ by praying ah my little daughter is dead Fear not only believe Mark 5. 36. ah they shall deliver us to synagogues and prisons and bring us before Kings and all men shall hate us for Christ's sake True But there shall not one hair of your head perish it s but our unbelief which sees God suffering all to roll and reel as Fortune Nature and Devils will which makes us sinfully care For the Lord and Father of Christ cannot vace and Christ's not working is contrary to John 5. 17. but all are in a good hand Obj. But Heman saith Psal 88. 13. In the morning shall my prayer prevent thee So the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in piel antecessit antevert it praeoccupavit anticipavit it s to go before in time in earliness Psal 119. 148. Mine eyes prevent the night watch Deut. 23. 4. The Amalekites prevented you not with bread it s to go before in place Psal 68. 26. The singers went before its strange that any prayer could prevent God Ans Not properly he saith himself JOb 41. 11. Who hath prevented me the same word that I should repay him then our preventing of God should lay some debt upon God which is unpossible and as Paul observes Rom. 11. 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who gave him first Therefore 1. He speaks Psal 88. of God after the manner of men as if Heman in a manner were more early up in the morning to pray then the Lord were ready to hear the contrary whereof is true as if Heman's early praying wakened God Psal 44. 23. Awake why sleepest thou 2. There is a preventing of God as a Deliverer and a Comforter God's order is that our praying makes an impulsion and stirring on the Lord first and then he delivers and comforts Psal 24. 6. Psal 18. 6 7 16. and so in order to comfort and deliverance in genere mediorum moralium prayer wakens Heaven and puts the Lord a working but as touching the order of real and physical actings the Lord prevents us the string of the Harp or Viol is not said to touch the hand of the Musician but the Musician's hand toucheth the string hence is Musick Nor does the Axe stir and lift up the arm of the Carpenter but the Carpenter's arm lifts up the Axe therefore they who teach that our prayer and the actings of our free will can and may prevent grace in place of preventing grace give us nature and the creature preventing God we read of the Father drawing us and the Son with the odour of his ointments drawing sinners but to teach that nature prevents grace is to say we are
spirit 2. We are not to do any thing because God in his word hath commanded us to doe it but because the Spirit immediately acts in us to doe and immediate impulsion of the Spirit is now instead of the Law and of the word of God either written or preached but this is a wicked confounding of the efficient real cause and the strength of which we obey with the objective cause and morally directing commanding and perswading rule according to which we are to regulate and order our obedience yea and children can contradict this who know that the Mason who imploys his strength to build must be differenced from the Masons Rule and the Art plummet and line according to which he works for otherwise it s all one as to say the power or faculty visive of seeing were light were colours that are seen and the souldiers force and strength of apprehending a man and Law and justice according to which they do it were all one a gracious soul doth all acts of obedience upon the account of a command of God and fetcheth his moral and godly delight from the command of God the facility and strength of doing is indeed from the Spirit for whose help he desires to be thankful and to whom he desires to give all the praise and glory 2. It s a false Spirit which is so contrary to the word of precept and command 3. It s fit to subscribe to that Psal 127. 1. Except the Lord build the house they build in vain that build except the Lord watch the City the watchman waketh but in vain 1 Cor. 3. 7. So then neither is he that planteth nor he that watereth any thing but God that giveth increase But the holy Ghost never dreamed of such an inference therefore let builders watchmen and Ministers of the Gospel go to bed and sleep for God he alone shall build Cities and Houses and watch over men and all societies and bring all souls to Christ yea he hath commanded us to act and to help the Lord so he speaketh Judges 5. 23. 1 Cor. 3. 9. 1 Cor. 4. 1. and it hath a real truth though he needs no help from the creature and we are for his holy commands sake to act and to eye and trust in him who in all the acts of nature and oeconomy and art leads the way and in all the acts of grace yea we are to rejoyce that the Lord Jesus is Master of work and only Steersman CHAP. II. 1. What the natural man can doe to get influences the natural man can doe more then he does and can exercise the natural powers to come within the bosome of the net though he cannot hale himself to land 2. How the Lord can command the naturally blind to see and believe 3. How sin original deserves eternal wrath 4. It s such a sin in infants 5. The want of original righteousnesse and a power of believing is a sin in us 5. How the Lord commands impotent men THe greater doubt is how the Lord can command supernatural acts to a man drowned in nature but it s not here as when a Tyrant commands a child to wheel about the first heaven else he shall kill him for the so moving of the heaven is neither a moral duty nor was it ever a duty compassible by the physical power of the arm of a child or a strong man But the main intent of our Lord in laying on supernatural commands upon man unable to believe is that men may know what they can pay and what they owe and can never pay but not of their own pay the debt of faith the precept is not unrational where the end is rational 2. Not that the natural man may satisfie but that he may come and compone and acquiesce to a friendly Gospel treaty for nothing heightneth the price and worth of Christ more in the shining of free grace nothing kills and renders self-condemned the man more then a seen necessity of forgiving love yea the reading of the writ of the Law-debt with tears when this is holden out to us the Lord gave a bill of grace to those who had nothing to pay and he forgave them frankly is a strongly convincing dispensation 2. Something which is really little or nothing a natural man may doe to fetch the wind when he cannot command it and cannot sayl he may and often doth exercise the natural faculty of moving from place to place and comes as a meer natural man upon a meer natural motive sinfull curiosity and a purpose violently to apprehend Christ as the souldiers doe John 7. 45 46 47. yea with bloudy hearts and a purpose to persecute as the hearers of Peter doe Acts 2. and yet beside and contrary to the will and intent the man is wrought upon and converted before he go away as some go to Sea and sayl to India poor with no intention to be enriched with gold but only to get bread and yet they come again from India rich with Indian gold and many precious stones far beside their intention A man rude and ignorant goes to Athens upon no purpose to become learned yet providence so disposeth that he falls in love with learning and studying many years he returns from Athens a most learned man Now no man can say that either the Indian gold or the learning of Athens did contribute any real or physical strength to his loco-motive and natural faculty of journeying to India or Athens so neither can it be said the Spirit of grace or the Gospel of grace did add any new real and physical strength to Peter's hearers to cause them to come in under the stroke of the preached Gospel Now the Gospel is the power of God to salvation the Apostle useth such spiritual weapons of warefare to cast down strong holds it s the arm of the Lord Rom. 1. 16. 2 Cor. 10. 56. Isa 53. 1. and the preached Gospel is the triumphing chariot of Christ conquering Christ's office-house of free grace Now a man on his own feet and by his own strength though sick may come to the Physicians office-house where all his medicine boxes and helps and remedies of health are and be cured ere he goe a way and may go away with perfect strength and health yet he came to the Physicians house in no strength nor health which he received from his art and medicine The Word is the net the Fish may come in its own natural motion within the bosome of the net but it s the strength of the arms of the Fisher that hales the Fish to land the Fish catcheth not it self The word of God is a sharp two-edged sword and doth the work by the Spiriâ—â— Heb. 4. 12. The mouth of Christ is like a sharp sword Isa 49. 2. His arrows are sharp in the heart of the Kings enemies whereby the people fall under him Isa 45. 5. A man may in his own natural strength come in within the shoot
me hope when I was on my mothers brest c. So is there Psal 102. fainting ver 3. My bones are consumed like smoke and my bones are burnt as an hearth Ver. 4. My heart is smitten and withered like grass And ver 12. there is a rising of faith But thou O Lord shalt endure for ever and thy remembrance to all generations Ver. 13. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion Psal 77. 4. Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot speak Ver. 7. Will the Lord cast off for ever It s low enough now and yet how doth the Church lift up her head Ver. 13. Thy way O God is in the sanctuary who is so great a Lord as our God So Lam. 1. 2 3 4 5 6. 7 8 c. compared with ver 2 22 23. in which actings under unbelief and customary formality with some glimmering of fainting faith eying the command of God in the darknesse when there is no light Isa 60. 10 11 c. there go along some farther actings of the spirit not that we think there is any truth of that of the School-men To him who doth what he can by the strength of nature God denies not helps and influences of grace Yet in these we see God comes along with his influences But if we say 4. That there are in the renewed child of God some stirrings of the spirit in all these acts we go about under deadness then one act of praying and the influence of grace makes way physically to another and that to a third for to say nothing of the promise To him that hath it shall be given of which hereafter I do but provoke to the experience of the Saints if here the second pull of prayer be not stronger then the first and the third then the second and the fourth above the third for when the wheels are a going the Organs of the spirit do not weary And there is a reserve of fresh strength and a stronger recruit and supply in Jacobs wrestling until the dawning reserved and more strength of heavenly violence to prevail with God then in his wrestling all the night Gen. 32. 26. Let me go saith the Angel of the Covenant Christ for the day breaketh And he said I will not let thee go except thou blesse me 28. As a Prince thou hast power with God saith the Lord to him And we see one throwing about of the key when the lock of the door is rusted maketh the second throwing obout more easie and the third throw does yet more and the seventh or the tenth throw makes the passage of the iron bolt yet most easie and the door at length with little violence is opened when now the rust and straitnesse is removed And a flaming of the fire prevailing over a dry tree makes easie way to a second flaming and that to a third and so to all the rest till the timber be consumed and the fire be fully victorious Believing adds to believing praying begets more praying and we see motion breeds warmnesse and that stronger motion and cold hearts that are dead and almost frozen by one smiting of influences grow hotter and by two or three or seven actings of the spirit grow yet hotter and yet more â—ot And there is something in that Cant. 6. 11. I went down to the garden of nuts 12. Or ever I was aware my soul made me like the chariot of Aminadab or of my wilâ—ing people There is some stiffnesse upon the living man when he first begins to move but a little motion makes him more agile Dr. Preston may aim at the like truth If a man saith he were to run a race if he were to doe any bodily exercise there must be strength of body he must be fed well that he may have ability but the use of the very exercise it self the very particular act which is of the same kinde with the exercise is the best thing to fit him for it So in this dutie of prayer it 's true to be strong in the inner man to have much knowledge to have much grace makes a man fit and able for the duty But if you speak of the immediate preparation for it I say the best way to prepare us for it is the very duty it self as all actions of the same kind increase the habits so prayer makes us fit for prayer and that is a rule The way to godlinesse is the compass of godlinesse it self that is the way to grow in grace is the exercise of that grace I wish this man of God and others more experienced then I had said more of this unknown subject and that the Lord would sit builders in both Kingdomes to draw up a body of Theologia practica that Divinity were more in our hearts it s too much in the heads of many only I speak here of preparation to receive influences D. Preston of the preparation to duties to praying under indisposition But I would not be understood so as if I thought acts of influences which are acts of Omnipotency might be sharpened and facilitated by our actings Only my meaning is that the passive capacity of the soul may be widened and enlarged to receive showres of quickening influences from the Lord by frequent acts Experience in my weak apprehension may speak influence of grace oyls the wheels of the soul Prov. 1. 5. A wise man will hear and encrease learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels We grow hot like hot iron redded in the fire by praying and are softned and macerated like dry and parched ground by frequent showres and though the heart be frozen and cold when we begin to duties of praying praising meditating conferring of the word hearing yet incalescimus we grow warm by acting the rising of the Sun causeth the Ice to drop off the houses It s a naughty heart that is in the same case after frequent prayer that it was in before It says that the man hath been sweating at the letter and bark of the duty little of the bark or letter of the duty takes glewing with the heart but hardly can the grace of the duty go along with the heart but there is much that cleaves to the heart so that influences thaw the heart Luke 24. 32. Did not say the Disciples our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while the opened to us the Scriptures Cant. 1. 4. When the King brought me into his chambers we will be glad rejoyce in thee and remember thy love more then wine Sure when the influences of Christ are fiery and live coals it is no wonder they leave lively warmings upon the heart Cant. 4. 16. Awake O North wind and come thou South and blow vpon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out It must be a speech to the Spirit to breath upon the Saints that they may smel and flow more in the actings of
iniquity then upon the account of a holy walk the Lord must bestow influences of grace to preserve men from doing acts of iniquity And there must be a promise of influences that such as walk in the Law of the Lord shall walk more in that Law Prov. 1. 5. A wise man will hear and encrease more in learning then to spiritual wisedome there must be a promise of influences to encrease spiritual wisedom Isa 40. They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and walk and not faint Then waiting on the Lord shall fetch the wind of new quickening influences to wait more upon the Lord and to run and they that run shall run more and which falls not out in physical running when they are running Now fresh swiftness and recent vigour of speed shall be given to the runner and larger breath and spiritnesse then he had before None are thriving and growing men as the godly are Mal. 4. 2. But unto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings and ye shall goe forth and grow as calves in the stall Prov. 4. 18. But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day In which dispensation 1. Such as are more proud with plenty of means and plague themselves with abundance occasion the truth of this that Christ sends the rich empty away and throws the mighty down from their seats and their golden and silken chairs Luke 52. 53. And the rich and the full saith Hannah 1 Sam. 2. 5. have hired out themselves for bread And since men will be plagued and poysoned with plenty let it be so and that lie upon them as a word of chiding Deut. 29. 3. The great temptations which thine eyes have seen the signs and these great miracles Ver. 4. Yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor ears to hear unto this day And is the Lord complaining of himself in this place No he will not have them to search into the depth of soveraignty ver 29. because God gave them not an heart Nay but his scope is to complain of the peoples abusing of the plenty of means I gave you the grace of outward means but ye misgraced to speak so your own heart therefore it is just that ye be blind and deaf since ye wickedly wink and stop your ears though it cannot be denied that God would have them humbled by reflecting on their own wilful winking and blindness yet so as they should tremble and stoop at him who can give a new heart and eyes and ears but of soveraignty denies it to the reprobates of whom he complains that the chosen may tremble 2. We are hence led to consider the nature of God's promises that they are much unlike to the promises and covenants between man and man For it comes to this such as have influences from the Lord to run through his free grace the Lord of the same free grace giveth new influences to them to run more The Lord because he makes some rich in grace he makes them of rich in grace yet more rich in grace and whom he loves freely he yet more freely loves And the truth is the Lord makes himself debtor to his own grace not to our industry As Augustine the Lord gave being and milk to my Nurse to feed me thou gavest me nilling and willing where is my merit then 3. Free grace infused the first habit so by infusion of grace he adds parcels to the first habit so that the increase of the habit of grace is as free grace as the first habit and there is no earning nor hiring of grace or engaging of the Lord else grace should not be grace and works should not be works 4. By some hainous old and over years guiltiness we give place to the Divel and rotten talking and malice and wrath stealing in Paul is put to that necessary word Ephes 4. 26 27 28 29 30 31. Grieve not the Spirit of God by which ye are sealed to the day of redemption For such sins bring on withdrawing of influences Christ knocks and ye put a little stone in the Key-hole and the sprent is broken and the dore will neither open nor shut when the wheels of the Horologue are broke there is no sound of hours heard when the bones are crushed the man cannot walk the spiritual organs dispositions and powers of David's soul were blunted and out of frame by his adultery and bloud-guiltinesse No wonder then the Spirit was unwilling to dwell and act in his wonted lodging Psal 51. 11. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not saith he thy holy Spirit from me 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit It s good to keep the wheels whole But sin cannot so interdict or lay an arrestment upon influences as to conclude and restrain the free grace of God nor does the Lord by the Saints falls fall from his soveraignty and princedom of grace yea rather from the heightning and abounding of sin does the reign and Kingly power of grace shine the more the more tumid the boyl is and the more the flesh about it burns and flames with the swelling of the humour the more it is ripened for breaking and healing A Feaver at the height begins to decline as the Sea full at the outmost point of the shore does reflow and ebb again See death and sin's reign and grace and Christ's reign Rom. 5. 15 17 21. See Ezech. 20. 23. Ezech. 16. 59 60. Ezech. 26. 21 22 23. 1 Tim. 1. 13 14 15 16 17. make some ripeness for fulness of grace Though Christ's reign cannot ebb or fall But no thanks to the sinner but great praise to him who makes medicine of the rotten and attry bloud of our wounds 5. It s considerable that gracious actings fetch influences for other gracious actings for grace is nearer of kin to grace then nature can be to grace Now as touching the Author of influences that we may come more particularly to the supernaturalness of influences we know the Father the Son the holy Spirit are all in Scripture said to act upon the soul in a gracious way It shall not be needful to speak much of the Father's influences upon the man Christ in sending and bestowing the Spirit and the anointing above his fellows upon him In the influences of the God-head in a personal union upon the Man Christ in filling him with the holy Ghost from the womb and especially the Lord was mighty in him in preaching with authority so that the hearers were astonished and all wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth in praying while his countenance shined And 2. The Lord's influences were evident in disputing with
For the Spirit helps our infirmities And then praying is a mass of influences for faith for holy desires for sense of want yea and no man gets the spirit but the praying son Luke 11. 11. Only this shall bide a question How shall they pray for the Spirit that want the Spirit Answ Yea Magus though in the gall of bitternesse is commanded to pray Acts 8. 21. The Law commanded praying to God incarnate when he is revealed to be incarnate As the first command charges all to know the Lord practically in all the wayes of Law and Gospel by which he shal reveal himself and the Lord hath not abated a whit and come down from his holy rigorousnesse as if the Lord would make amends and give us as some Pelagians say a lower and milder Law which forbids not venials Et peccata quotidianae incursionis praecise sub periculo aeternae condemnationis Yea but there is not any Law nor Gospel which forbids not sin under the same penalty that the Law forbids and the Gospel forbids not adultery and murder in David but he is free from eternal punishment if he be humbled for these sins as he must be humbled for lesser and venial sins Psal 19. 12. Psal 51. 5. Psal 130. 3 4. God may strait all men to pay the very stock which he gave them in Adam 2. Are not men inexcusable when they will not await the wind and lie at the tide and use meanes but refuse to command body and legs to present themselves to the sea-side and the ship The body and legs have no influence on the winds so they declare that they hate the covenant and bargain of grace as well as the Law who refuse to stir in his ways 3. The first giving of the spirit is like the growing of lillies and flowers wilde on the mountaines plough or spade can do nothing to cause them so to grow in the garden and the infield Pelagians must not get their will their common universal grace is not the spirit of Adoption and those who say men can pray who never received the spirit of Adoption happily they may complement with the Lord in word but They deny prevening grace and in effect say that nature prevenes grace and men prevene God and not grace prevenes nature For if there be such a thing as prevening nature this were to say the child is born before the mother and the apple growes before the tree and the bloom is before the herb Nay to pray for the spirit and not to pray in the spirit shall never be my Divinity that were to buy Rubies and Jasper-stones with clay and common flints and rocks nay nature cannot trade without grace And while the Lord creates the rose-tree the rose-tree cannot seed nor bring forth rose-trees Oh but it concernes us much Ministers and Professors to have the spirit and to have more of it Too many Ministers in the Land cast never fire on the people they never warm hearts but by hewing and striking and hammering upon the Letter the fire of the Lord falls not down upon the sacrifice Ah our fleece is dry and we are like the Land not rained upon And let men speak Can ye live without the Spirit and his influences more then ye can live without God and without Christ in the world And who cries Lord can my dry bones live misse ye the anointing The complaining of the suspending of influences of the ebbing of the free manifestations flowings and out-lettings of free grace speaks a spiritual disposition For 1. The Church complains to God of it Isa 63. 17. 2. Yielding to a temptation is a pain to the Saints Psal 73. 21 22. 3. The Saints pray for influences of grace for teaching leading quickening inclining of the heart to the way of God uniting of the heart to fear the name of God then must the withdrawing of these be evil 4. When we pray against temptations to sin and not to be led into temptation 5. When we pray for the spirit of grace to be poured on us from on high we pray not for the giving of the bare habit for that could not hinder David Lot Peter Asa Iehoshaphat Aaron Hezekiah and others of the Saints to fall into sad and hainous transgressions but we suit also from the Lord the sanctified use and exercise of grace and so must suit influences 6. When we pray that God would not take his spirit from us Psal 51. 12. nor forsake us nor take the word of truth utterly out of our mouth Psal 119. 43. we then also pray that he would not withdraw gracious influences 7. A gracious finding how sweet safe and comfortable it is to be acted led moved guided by the sweet influences of the spirit cannot but be grieved at the departure of such a guide and counsellour 8. It 's lawful to seek sense of Gods loving countenance in joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. 1 Pet. 1. 7 8. in delighting in God and in duties relating to him and our brethren and in the consolations of the Holy Ghost and in the spirits work of sanctifying us then we may and are to be grieved at the withdrawings of God that we see not his power and glory in the Sanctuary as we have sometimes done Psal 63. 5. The spirit that is of God goes along with the word if we 1. consider the spirits relation to the word My spirit and my words Isa 59. 21. For the Gospel is the chief chair and seat of the spirit Rom. 1. 16. Isa 53. 1. The word is as it were the work-house and shop and the spirit the worker the word the ship or chariot and the spirit drives and stirs the promises The spirit honours so the word the spirit moves and acts when the word moves and acts the spirit utters not a groan but according to the will of God in the word Rom. 8. 26 27. Acts 10. 44. While Peter yet spake these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Ghost fell upon those that heard the word When the ship or the chariot moves the Pilot or Steers-man and the Coach-man are moved with them The poor Minister often drives an empty coach and carries but sounds and letters but when the spirit strikes in with the word and is steers-man in the ship the vessel is afloat and sayls gallantly before the wind 2. The word preached is the breathing of the spirit and the spirit speaks and breaths through the word and it is the word of the spirit the holy Ghost prophesied well of you c. 3. The spirit is referred to the word as the soul to the body the body is but a lump of dead clay if the soul be removed and the word is so many sounds syllables and letters if the spirit act not this is a similitude and would be well exponed There is a two-fold power one subjective and material which comes from the Author the holy Ghost
in which regard the word of God from the Author the Holy Ghost hath actu primo as touching the matter and efficient cause holiness liveliness divinity majesty of style even as contradistinguished from the spirit acting with it there is no word no book no speech of Angels or Men comparable to it There is 2. A formal power which agrees to the word actu secundo as the spirit going along with the word makes it effectual to enlighten to teach to rebuke to convince to perswade so our Divines say a modern Lutheran widely mistakes the efficacy of the word is from the spirit 2 Cor. 10. 4. the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty how mighty not of themselves but mighty through God We make not the word of it self a dead inky letter as Papists and Libertines both doe The like distinction is clear in a Sword or an Axe of steel both the one and the other from the matter and artificer that made them hath actu primo sharpness and aptness to cut Suppose the Artificer that made both be dead yet the sharpest two-edged sword that is except it be weelded by the arm of a valiant man can doe no good in war And the like may be said of the Axe both are dead things of themselves Hence 1. Since we are meer Messengers we cannot breath life in the word only like the Trumpeter that blows his warm breath through a dead trumpet of Brasse but he blows or breaths no valour or courage in the souldiers that was not in them before But if the spirit goe along and breath life in the hearers they shall live as speaking and acting are conjoyned Ezech. 2. 1. Son of man stand upon thy feet and I will speak to thee 2. Then the spirit entered into me when he spake to me and he set me on my feet So John 5. 25. Ezech. 37. 7 8. It not a little concerns Ministers and Hearers to pray that the spirit may go along with the word otherwise the shepherds singing through an â—aten reed shall never feed sheep or lambs and make them fat and people often receive in their ears a noise of words and syllables and are not fed with sounds It 's true Christ and the Prophets and Apostles preached in the spirit and in the lively power of God and yet nothing but the letter came to the ears of many of their hearers Isa 53. 1. Isa 28. 9. the hearers are but as weaned children Mat. 13. 13 14 15. the hearers are fatted hypocrites And a poor man speaks the letter of the word and happily deadly and weakly yet betwixt the speakers mouth and the hearers heart the spirit strikes in and the dead man lives 2. The letter of the word spoken by Christ lies dead until the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost come then he shall teach you all things in a lively way which the man Christ as man only did not and bring all things to your remembrance John 14. 26. 3. The light may remain only light and literal and uselesse the Disciples in the garden with Christ knew they should watch and pray yet they sleep The spirit brings not up literal light to spiritually quickning light John 16. 7. The spirit shall convince the world of sin because they believe not in me What did not all the Prophets convince the world of sinful unbelief Isa 7. If ye believe not ye shall not be established Isa 53. Who hath believed our report Did not Christ himself convince the world of sinful unbelief John 3. 18 36. John 5. 24. John 11. 26 27. and all the Ministers of the New Testament convince men that they ought to believe and receive Christ by faith But all these are but literal convictions until the spirit carry into the heart the marrow of the promises and threatnings of the Gospel with a strong hand and the natural man while he is in the mouth of Hell with Judas is convinced of the Law deserving and of unbeliefs desert but not of actual damnation The deceit of the conscience is this that all are under sin and the curse who believe not but God must give a general suspension against the Gospels decree and sentence of death for my unbelief and to most of mankind Ah this is not to be convinced of unbelief by the spirits working Nor in all this does the spirit adde any divine majesty and power to the word which was not in the word before when he effectually perswades and convinces As the hewer puts no metal in the Axe which was not in it before only he applies powerfully his strength and art to the effects which he produceth by the Axe and other tools by which he makes curious carved work Nor does the souldier adde any new sharpnesse to the Sword which it had not before only he useth the Sword for valorous exploits All that the spirit doth is in the powerful and effectual application of threatnings and promises in actual perswading to believe all the majesty and heavenly power the word hath actu primo from the immediately inspiring spirit and this is alike to all only much godly trembling is required that the spirit may in his mighty influences goe out with the word 2. Hence that is wild-fire and sparkles of hell not the spirit of Christ nor the influences of grace when a dumb spirit speaks not in the word but in signes images ceremonies devised by men as a dumb man speaks with his fingers The Spirit of God loves to work and act with his own tools in the testimonies and promises the Spirit of the Lord never bids burn the Bible Antiochus had such influences from hell and not from the Lord. Some make the Bible a horn-book for new beginners only as images are and the man must be all spirit turned into pure spirit why then do themselves speak write such fooleries why do they eat drink sleep hear such as are all spirit doe none of these But though holy men of God were far from making the spirit both Law and Gospel none had more of the secrets and mysterious visions of God revealed to him then John he saw Christ in his glory Rev. 1. 14 15 16. he saw Heaven open and the Throne and glorious company the new Jerusalem Yet Rev. 1. 3. he saith Blessed is he that readeth Can one that is all spirit speak of reading when he had seen all these visions of God Rev. 22. 18. he puts a seal of honour on Canonick Scripture he is charged to write in his divine Epistles These things I have written I write to you fathers c. When Christ is risen from the dead and entred in a most spiritual life Luk. 24. 27. he expones the Scriptures who so mock the Scriptures loath the Spirit also CHAP. VII Characters of a spiritual disposition are these 1. To be willing to be under the guidance of the spirit 2. Four expressions in the Scripture hold
not from the spirit and often the meer office and the letter not the spirit prays and preacheth out of the man it 's far from that praying Rom. 8. 26. And learn to discern the literal fair influences in praying in the flesh and the sweet calm fiery also and spiritual paining influences of love-sicknesse Cant. 5. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 c. 10. Conversing with spiritual men born of the spirit of the same Father John 5. John 3. 1 John 3. 14. Psal 119. 63. with Elias leaning on Christ's bosome in whom is fulnesse of the spirit declares a spiritual man None of the Disciples saw more spiritual and glorious visions then John in the book of the Revelation he would have desired to lean on and dwell in Christ's heart as in his bosome Brethren love one another the common nature and spirit of their Father dwels in them Fowls of the same feathers and colours haunt together Drunkards malignants swearers love to be together beware of wearying to haunt with the spirit and spiritual men and to loath a spiritual Ministery and to look upon spiritual doctrine as upon fancies If it be so with you you shall back to the flesh-pots of Egypt again it s a living near to the fountain to haunt much with the Saints and as the streams are one in the well so do the streams run in the same channel and love to stick together Natures of the same kind lambs with lambs love to live together Psal 119. 13. I am a companion of all them that fear thee and of them that keep thy Precepts A part of the Air keeps its being best in the whole Element whereas a part of the Air is corrupted in the bowels of the Earth where it is out of its own Element a part of water is best preserved in being in the element of water put it in a pit or hole of the earth it 's alone and it becomes rotten and unsavoury The Saints keep their spiritual being with the excellent ones in whom is all their delight Psal 16. 2. as being in their own element and no wonder if it be their woe to dwell long in Mesech and in Kedars tents with such as hate peace Psal 120. 5 6. Psal 57. 4 10. nor is this to flatter such as separate from Christ and his Ordinances nor to say Stand by thy self come not near me for I am holier then thou Isa 65. 5. and yet they themselves remain among the graves and lodge in the monuments Be rather frequenting Hospitals of sick ones making it your work to gain many it 's like to Christ Luke 16. 6 7 10. Matth. 9. 10 11 12 13. Luke 15. God ordinarily showers influences and promiseth influences to the flocking together of the godly and the pouring of his spirit on them Jer 50. 4 5 6. Zech. 8. 21 22 23. Mal. 3. 16. and two speaking of Christ Jesus himself comes in as third man Luke 24. 15 16 17 c. and as if they were the fit soyl he rains down influences of warmness and burning of heart on them while he opens the Scriptures to them v. 32. see Acts 2. 1 2 3 c. Joh. 20. 19. It 's a spiritual condition to talk of spiritual purposes when the well is full it must run over when there is a treasure and abundance in the heart the spirit comes to the tongue in Zachariah and Simeon Luke 2. 25 27. and grace seeths and boyls up to the tongue when the conceptions of the King Christ are the good matter indited by the heart Psal 45. 1. so to be filled with the spirit Ephes 5. 18 19. saith Paul speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual songs Giving thanks always for all things to God is the spirit's work in his abundant influences There is a spirit in men seen in language the sea-man talks of winds the husband-man of oxen and plowing the souldier of battels and wounds and the shepherd of flocks and the spiritual man of Christ redemption imputed righteousness and as the pilgrims heart and the pilgrims tongue the pilgrims thoughts are all upon his way and his home so is the spiritual man much upon Eternity Heaven Christ for the three noble Conferrers the transfigured man Christ glorified Moses and Elias speak of the celebrious heavenly subject the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and out-going of Christ when he was to leave the world The man hath been full of God who could not refrain from speaking of the Lord's testimonies before Kings and Princes have no great list to hear but of State matters of conquering new Kingdoms Psal 119. 46. the rotten unsavoury worldly and carnal speeches of many bewray how little of the spirit is within them It was Christ who had the fulness of the anointing of the spirit within him Psal 48. 8. I delight to doe thy will O my God thy law is within my heart In Sea and Land and House and Field by the way side journeying at every table when he should have eaten he made good that word ver 9. I have preached righteousness in the great Congregation lo I have not refrained my lips thou knowest O Lord. 10. I have not hid thy righteousnesse within my heart I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving kindness from the great Congregation Influences of grace are required for this as pag. 45. PART III. Influences of Grace CHAP. I. Of divers sorts of Influences HAving formerly spoken of Influences of grace in general we are now to descend to more specials Hence these particulars 1. Some influences are from Satan some from God 2. The way of Satans influences 3. It s lawful to dispute with Hereticks instruments of Satan but not lawful to dispute with Satan 4. Christ sought neither the Tempter nor the temptation 5. Some influences are natural some supernatural 6. Some moral some Physical 7. Some Prophetical some not 8. Some publick on the Church some personal 9. Some influences are given for the habit of grace or gifts some for the act some for both 10. Some proper to the head Christ some for the members 11. Some influences are fundamental some not 12. Some influences are given for saving graces actings some for the actings of a gift 13. Differences between acting of grace and acting of gifts 14. Some influences are viatorum of such as are in the way to their countrey some are comprehensorum of perfected ones some of grace some of glory For the fuller opening of the Doctrine of Influences some influences are from Satan some from God Influences from God are both moral when he commands good and forbids evil and real and physical in that all move in him as the first cause and mover in operations of nature 2. of grace 3. of glory But Satan being no Master or Lord of providence hath no real stirring in second causes his actings upon angel or mens soules are not physical but
only moral or tempting actings or hellish inspirations inductive to sin and it 's no small mercy that the Prince and God of a lost world who by permission acteth really on the air earth and waters yet hath no power of immediate real or physical acting upon minde will affection and conscience he having only a borrowed key and at the second hand power to suit the heart by fancy senses and outward objects 1 Kings 22. 22. John 13. Acts 5. 3. Some one way or other the court-gate of Achabs heart of Judas of Ananias and Sapphira lie open to Satans scout-watches It were safer to watch and fear then to dispute how that subtle Spirit can blow up the lock and get in for he knows not what is in a mans spirit The spirit of a man is under God the onely keeper of this castle and knows rooms doors and what is within 1 Cor. 2. 11. But devils lying about the out-works the senses the fancie and the imagination which is a material house and hath doors windows and entries passible to devils he can here blow the bellows and kindle iron works There be two wayes to know the secrets that are done in a cabinet-camber 1. Satan can send in posts with letters and write his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his wiles to the heart This is one way of putting it in the heart of Judas to betray Christ by sending his mind and will through the fancie to the heart and the fancy being set on work by the will and understanding can carry the missive letter else how could the Lord rebuke the sin of actual imaginations as he doth Jer. 9. 4. Jer. 13. 10. Jer. 18. 11 12. Nah. 2. 11. 2. The heart can write back an answer of the missive letters and print it on the fancy We know there is fire in the house by the smoke that comes out at the chimney A man may speak out at a window to another Satan conveyed by the serpents tongue and by Evahs eyes the living thoughts of a Godhead growing on the tree and can send in a word of a message to the heart All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me And thou shalt have thirty pieces of silver if thou wilt deliver up the Lord to us and from the sons of disobedience he gets a return he knew what Achab should answer to the 400 Prophets and heard that Thou shalt goe and also prevail And reason would say since all Satans prevailings have these two 1. A commission sought and obtained to tempt Job c. 1. and as particular as if written as is clear v. 12. Or a sentence of the great Judge to punish sin 1 Kings 22. 20 21 22 23. 2 Sam. 24. 1. It may appear that the lictor and executioner though he know not the heart and the thoughts of the Judge directly yet he knows his own written commission and what sentence he is to execute and what mischief he shall doe 1 Kings 22. 22. as the executioner knows whether the sentence bear heading or hanging 2. Ananias is blamed for Satans lye that he put in his heart Why hath Satan filled thy heart it's like there were a good many seeming arguments moved by Satan to promote the work in Ananias to lye to the holy Ghost Then though Satans knocking and active tempting be not our sin for our Saviour was tempted by Satan yet without sin yet he hath so access to to the heart as our yielding and being passively tempted with any degree of inclination to the tempation is our sin 3. Neither may we dispute or racket arguments with Satan Object We may dispute with Hereticks and convince them though they be Satans instruments Tit. 1. 9. Tit. 3. 10. and the blind man John 9. hold up a dispute in defence of Christ against the Pharisees therefore we may dispute with Satan himself Answ Men to whose ears the Gospel comes are to be gained by the power of the truth 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. We are commanded to confess Christ before men not before devils This end is not attainable in the fallen Angels therefore Christ rebukes Satans confessing of him Luke 4. 34 35. Obj. Christ holds up dispute with Satan Matth. 4. Answ We are to follow what is ordinary in Christs disputing that is to reject Satans temptations not brutishly and irrationally that is not victory over Satan by the light of faith but by evidence of Scripture and must refuse to yield to the temptation and refuse in faith 2. There is something extraordinary in this which we cannot follow for the second Adam here as Mediator carries the person of all the tempted ones as the first Adam did represent all his and gives a proof that he is Michael stronger then the Dragon and that all the tempted seed are by faith to rely on the strength of the tempted Saviour 3. Nor did Christ hold up or entertain the dispute with Satan he only gave one simple answer to every temptation It is written Nor had the dispute 1. It s rise from Christ Christ is rather a patient for our instruction then an agent as touching the rise of the temptation for Matthew saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tempter came unto him then Christ fetched neither the tempter nor the temptation or dispute 2. Satan brought him to the holy city Matth. 4. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Satan set him on a pinacle of the Temple v. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Devil took him unto an exceeding high mountain and shewed him all the kingdomes of the world Then did not the man Christ goe as from himself to the pinacle of the Temple nor to the exceeding high mountain to fetch and bring on himself the temptation or the dispute See Luke 4. 5 6 7 8. Yea Divines think he submitted that his holy body should be so far acted upon by Satan So Mark 1. 12. the Spirit drives him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 casteth him violently to the desart Evah entertains a dialogue with Satan 1. Speaks by way of complaining of God 2. And doubtingly of the Lords word of threatning Gen. 3. Saul the 1 Sam. 28. seeketh after Satan and makes a journey to him Some influences of God are 1. upon the act yet so as they are willingly received by us 2. Though they be terminated upon the material act under trangression yet is there neither moral warrant nor perswasion to the sinfulness from the Lord but the contrary But when the influence is to gracious acts there are many strong allurements from precept promise threatning to move us to close with the gracious act and virtually with the real influence 3. Satans influences are to shameful acts to walking naked 2. To bloody delusions to kill the children to Molech 3. To unwarrantable delusions to lay aside Scripture and walk in the dark attending on unwritten dreams 2 Divis Some influences of God are ordinis
his actings from a gift to be actings from grace but 1. An habitual delusion such as was in the five foolish virgins all their life and until the market of buying oyle was spent and over cannot fall into a regenerate man for the Lord reveals his state to him 2. A child of God may all his life not put a distinct difference between the gift of preaching in Judas and the grace of preaching for there is no certainty of faith of the saving grace of others as touching particular men 3. There is in the Saints a spiritual sense of discerning Christs voice and here two things are to be distinguished 1. The actings of sense 2. The objects of sense and spiritual discerning the acts of sense in order to others are not infallible either in the habit or the act the eleven may all their life mistake Judas But as touching the object the saving influences and actings of God have them in some singular and peculiar thing by which actu primo and in themselves they may be discerned As Christs preaching had such grace in it never man spake like him Pauls preaching in the evidence and demonstration and power of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2. had something that a spiritual discerning might take up the garden flower and the wild flower that grows in the mountains are like other yet the senses of seeing and smelling find a difference It 's dreadful when Christs preaching and the Apostles speaking and praying in the holy Ghost brings forth mocking and persecution and the miracles of Christ that were done by the power of God are fathered upon the Prince of devils it 's hard to perswade men of the naughtiness of their own heart What comes from self comes from grace the heart because it is the mans own is good to God the prayers are the mans own and good the lamps they are our own and they shine and therefore the shining is from the oyl of grace within and yet the lamp is empty 2. As to others hardly see we what condition they are in and because the smell of dead bones comes not through marble-stones in the Tomb therefore the paintry of a profession satisfies us yet it was not want of charity that made Micah 7. 2. say The good man is perished out of the earth and there is none upright among men they lie in wait for blood As now it 's called morosity rash judgment to say that the generality of Ministers and too many time-covenanters know little of any work of the Spirit on their hearts 10 Divis There are influences proper to the way to the Country and influences proper to the end and to the Country or influences of grace and influences of glory Influences for the way though they come from Christ our life yet for the most part they come by some meanes the word the seals prayer faith in the promises what influences they have who never heard the Gospel but have the law of nature within and book of creation and of providence without by which they may read and spell a Godhead and duties they owe to God Creator is harder to determine But they shall be witnesses to judge us and shall justifie Sodom Matth. 10. 15. But did we read more meditate more the covenant of grace we should have more of the influences of grace the influences of glory are the immediate and eternal out-lettings of God without word or faith or praying The tree of life hath growing on it apples of life all the moments of the year that is a long summer and a long year the tree is ever green ever blossoming eternally bearing fruit and the inhabitants eternally feasting on the fruit The river of life runnes for ever and ever flowes eternally and never ebbs they eternally drink in life and joy from him which sits upon the Throne and the Lamb. So many millions of glorified ones as there are so many eternal and immediate dependencies and living beames of glory united to the Son of righteousness because Christ is our life Col. 3. 4. therefore must heaven be a life of immediate influences of grace in the first glorious conserving power of God in preserving bodies of clay in a being of 1. Incorruption and immortality beyond sickness cold pain old age and death 2. In a state of glory free of shame 3. In a state of bodily strength power and activity free of weakness 4. In a state of spirituality free of a necessity of earthly helps eating drinking sleeping 1 Cor. 15. 42 43 44. 2. It must be an immediate out-letting of God in the fourth life of eternal blessedness and glory above the life of nature 2. The life intellectual of reason 3. The life of grace in the vision of the face of God 1 John 3. 2. Rev. 22. 4. Job 19. 26. knowing him 4. In the influences of fulness of joy and delights or pleasures and that so long as Christ-God shall live for evermore Now these three 1. Fruition of God as the last end and satisfaction in him onely seeking no other lover but God in Christ 2. Loving and adhering to God there being no room for faith and hope 1 Cor. 13. 13. whence comes filling of the concupiscible part desire delight 3. Praising him eternally and the Lamb. These three I say have both the consideration of duties and of a reward in both considerations the Lord lets out his immediate influences on that blessed company in all these 1. We are sick of love after our prison here rather then for our choisest life 2. We seek not the earnest and first fruits of this life CHAP. II. The nature of the habit of grace that there is 2. Such a habit is clear in the word 3. It 's purchased by Christs merit 4. Hath supernatural actings flowing from it 5. Influences without this habit are but delusions 6. Differences betwixt the habit of grace and other habits 7. Resolutions must be followed with prayer 2. Godly trembling 3. Faith 8. The stronger the habit of grace is the stronger and and more connatural are the acts flowing from it THe third particular is how the Saints may fetch the holy breathings of the Spirit by supernatural habits And touching this we shall speak to these 1. What the habit of grace is 2. How it is the seed of influences of grace 1. What necessity there is of the connexion betwixt the habit of grace and how we may fetch breathings of the Spirit from the habit of grace As to the first The habit of grace is a fixed disposition infused in the soul by the Lord purchased by Christs merit of his death by which we perform supernatural duties 1. A habit is a heavenly disposition or quality gracious by which the man even sleeping is denominated a convert a believer a translated man from darkness to light Col. 1. 13. Acts 2. 44. Acts 4. 4. 1 John 3. 14. 2. It is a fixed quality different from a spiritual disposition as
Psal 57. 7. My heart is fixed or disposed O God or prepared but his heart was not ever and alwayes fixed and prepared to praise though he had ever the habit and seed of God in him after his conversion 3. It is a fixed disposition infused in the soul by the Lord as a permanent quality so Isa 44. 3. I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground What is that flood I will pour my spirit upon thy seed Zech. 12. 10. And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication Ezek. 11. 19. And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh Jer. 31. 33. I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and will give you an heart of flesh And also that this is an inbiding and permanent quality infused of God and an habit not acquired by our industry by which the Saints are and really are named anointed renewed born again new creatures is clear 2 Cor. 3. 3. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in the fleshly tables of the heart So this habit is called the seed of God 1 John 3. 9. The anointing saith John 1. 2 and 20. which ye have received of him and abides in you 27. Yea the Father and the Son making their abode in the soul John 14. 13. The well of water springing up to life eternal in the believer John 4. 14. Rivers of living waters flowing out of the belly By which the Saints are said to be denominated quickened Ephes 2. 1 4 and 5. and to be light in the Lord whereas they were once darkness Ephes 5. 8. new creatures 2 Cor. 5. 17. born of God 1 John 5. 1. 1 Iohn 3. 2. Now this is infused and no more an acquired habit then regeneration conversion translation is acquired 4. This new fixed disposition is given through the merit of Christ Acts 5. 30. Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree v. 31. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins Then is Christ the giver of repentance and of all spiritual habits not simply but as crucified and made a meriting Prince 2. The Father hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ then also with the habit of sanctification 3. We are sanctified by the the willing offering that Christ made when he gave himself a sacrifice once for all Heb. 10. 8 9 10. and the people sanctified by his blood Heb. 13. 12. Then in the merit of this blood must we have the habit of sanctification 4. If the conscience be purged by the blood of sprinkling from dead works Heb. 9. 14. then is the heart of stone removed which is nothing but this deadness in us before our conversion and new birth and if this be done so that we are sprinkled with clean water cleansed from all our filthinesse and idols and the heart of stone taken out of us and a new heart of flesh even a new heart given us not for our own doings but for his own names sake Ezek. 36. 22 25 26 32. that is from the precious and onely saving grace of Jesus Christ as it is exponed in the New Testament Acts 3. 16 25 26. Acts 4. 12. Rom. 3. 24 25. Ephes 1. 17. Coloss 1. 13. Acts 10. 42 43. So for Davids sake is exponed in the New Testament for the Son of Davids sake and for the Lords names sake is all one with this for the merits and death of Christ 5. Christs blood is a ransome not to buy us from wrath only and from the evil of punishment but also from the evil of iniquity and sin and so from the bondage of our vain conversation 1 Pet. 1. 18. from all iniquity Tit. 2. 19. from living to sin 1 Pet. 2. 24. and so to purchase the grace of the new birth and to make us Kings and Priests to God Rev. 1. 5 6. 6. The Spirit poured on the thirsty ground Isa 44. 3. on the house of David Zech. 12. 10. is either a gift of nature or a grace The former can be said by none but Pelagians and Socinians for if the only principle of the life of God and the new birth be a work of our industry Christ died in vain if it be a free grace we must receive it out of Christs fulness For out of his fulness we all receive John 1. 16. 5. By this supernatural habit we perform supernatural duties and new acts of life for Isa 44. By the Spirit given they shall spring up as among the grass as verse 4. willows by the water course They shall graciously professe and swear a covenant to the Lord v. 5. One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himselfe by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and sirname himself by the name of Israel And when the Spirit is poured on the house of Jacob the second acts flowing therefrom are acts of believing and looking on Christ whom they pierced and mourning over Christ and being in bitterness as if his first-born were dead So Ezek. 36. the putting in the new heart hath walking v. 27. in the Lords statutes keeping his judgments The first young motions and life-stirrings of the circumcised heart are the loving of the Lord Deut. 30. 6. the returning and obeying the voice of the Lord v. 8. Then 1. saving influences in spiritual actings in praying praising hearing are meer delusions without this new habit not the motions and actings of a living man from influence of life But some cozeners by the art of Satan have made dead images to speak but that speaking or laughing or weeping was but counterfeit and from no kindly influence of life in the dead stone The heavy elements move downward and that from an inward principle of nature but the motion of the wheeles in a horse-mill is not from nature within but from the beasts that draw the wheels nor is the motion of the several pieces of the horologe from a principle of life but from art And the actings of men destitute of such a supernatural habit suppose they give all their goods to the poor and give their bodies to be burnt yet are there no influences of the life of Christ in these actions they come from composed art and industry of hypocrisie custome formality and vain-glory and such
plowing preacheth bread and corn in the land the setting up of the shepherd-tents before your door proclames Christs shepherd-care to feed you love Christ and follow the shepherd 4. Collect rather the affirmative 〈◊〉 the negative conclusion When Christ sets up a husbandry in 〈◊〉 Vineyard can ye tell who are interdited heirs and say I am a bramble and a cursed briar and no plant of righteousness no vine-tree therefore he hath no thoughts to make me a part of the soyl that the Father of Christ shall labour and purge Who told you newes of Christs thoughts to interdite you from getting good of the Gospel rather collect the contrary I found a candle lighted in the land of my nativity though my father be an Amorite and my mother a Hittite Why but I may be a piece of lost money whom he seeks if yea love Christ Loves logick is I love Christ or I desire to love Christ therefore Christ loves me and I desire to use the meanes of salvation and to goe up to Jerusalem to worship the King and keep the Feast of Tabernacles therefore I shall be no family or part of the land of Egypt on which there comes no rain Zech. 14. 17 18 19. Seldome doth the use of means want influences where the Lord gives any tolerable conscience of plowing and planting there he sends down watering and refreshing showres from heaven There 's an instinct of natures logick framing hellish consequences Christ loves not me therefore I wil not treat with Christ nor come in terms of communing with him and withal there is no anxious missing of inherent habits it 's not from the Spirit of God ever to be missing objective grace which is eternally in God and never in a paining way to miss subjective grace inherent who is angry who hath resisted his will Rom. 9. And it 's Satans method first to miss Gods love to you and make a quarrel with God for that before you miss your love to God and to the Redeemer Christ and make a plea with your self for not loving of lovely Jesus Christ The servants word is Matth. 25. I knew thou wast a hard man Knowest thou not thy self to be a servant gracelesse and malignant The habit of grace in its own nature is of a middle nature betwixt a power and an act and to come now to the third particular there is for the further clearing of the connexion betwiâ—◠〈◊〉 habit of grace and the acts of grace a question â—o be cleared Whether or not the habit of grace may â—e by and utterly cease from acting to which the answer is in these assertions Assert 1. No habit of grace or any habit as such can reduce it self to acting for it is well neer to the nature of a power the Sun Moon and Stars move not themselves but are moved by some other powers whatever they be 2. We are commanded to stir up the grace that is in us 2 Tim. 1. 6. then must the habit lie dead as it were except we improve it the two talents do not make themselves four the man to whom the talents were given must do that Matth. 25. Assert 2. It 's not improbable that saving grace of it self being not God nor the holy Ghost himself but a created thing may as to its own nature perish and dry up 1. For it is not to be trusted in nor doth the weight of our standing against temptations consist in our stock but in the Lords conserving power Peter had saving faith but that faith could neither keep Peter from falling nor keep the faith from failing but the standing of Peter's faith Luke 22. 32. is in Christs intercession I have prayed for thee leâ—t thy faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be sunken down that which needs a keeper without it self cannot keep it self for faith is but an instrumental keeper But 1 Pet. 1. 5. we are kept and our faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the power of God As also Jer. 1. 9. the weight of Jeremiah's standing couragiously in his Ministry is not on Jeremiah his stock and habit of grace though the Lord had put much precious mettal in him and made him a brazen wall as Prophets are of themselves but clay bottles that are soon broken but in the Lords actual supporting of him by influences from God 19. I am with thee saith the Lord to deliver thee and therefore the strength immortality and stability of the habit of grace is in his power who furnishes actual influences 2. In the decree of God 3. In his covenant and promise 4. In the intercession of Christ no man then can commit idolatry with saving inherent grace to put it in the room of God and to trust in it Be not secure but be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Eph. 6. 10. who must furnish new influences of grace Assert 3. The habit of grace so far may cease to act and lie dead as notwithstanding that the beloved Christ knocks and speaks heaven into the Church Open to me my sister my love my dove c. Cant. 5. 2. yet she opens not the habit being under the ashes yea being a little frozen and blunted the spouse shifts his presence I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them And the habit of grace doth not hinder David and Peter and Lot but upon the Lords withdrawing of actual influences they may fall into atrocious and hainous sins Assert 4. Yet in some sense the habit of grace rests not For 1. The habit of grace according to the degrees makes the man stronger as John Baptist by the indwelling of the holy Ghost in some fulness is stronger against temptations of persecutors and so is Steven fuller of the holy Ghost then men not converted 2. The habit of grace debilitates weakens the acts of sin in the regenerate that they sin not with full bensil of will as the indwelling body of sin again weakens the acts of faith and others the like flowing from the habit of grace the combat betwixt the flesh and the spirit proves both the one and the other Rom. 7. 14 15 16 c. for this combat is ever in the regenerate 3. The habit of grace of it self as a weight disposes the renewed man to resist sin as a stone though violently detained in the air actu primo habitually of it self inclines the stone to move downward to its natural place whence come some far-off tendency and habitual bowings of the heart to the love of Christ as warmness of heart Luke 24. 32. stirring of bowels at the inward motions of Christ on the soul even when he is kept out Cant. 5. 5. The covered and borne down habit of grace may and doth break out into praying after him when he is away and most anxiously and carefully seeks him Cant. 3. 1 2 3 4. John 20. 13. 6. There is
no such sleeping but the heart is waking and breaks out in these acts first and misses him he knocks and says Open then she knew he was without They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him John 20. I sought him but I found him not Cant. 3. 2. there is a discerning that it was his knock and breathing And 2. his voice My heart waked at the voice of my Beloved 3. She knew his very words and repeats them Open to me my sister my love my dove c. though then sleeping 4. There is a spiritual wishing O! if I could open and overcome the temptation of carnal drowsiness this appears in the Spouses confession of the excuse he knocked and spake lovely and I refused rudely to open I have cast off my coat this is told by her by way of confession of sin I have put off my coat how shall I put it on for there may from the habit of grace arise an habitual and a conditional desire that the temptation had never assaulted and yet there is an absolute consent to the temptation and a wish that this sinful pleasure were not astray to the Law which is in effect a labouring to reconcile my carnal lust and the Lord 's holy Law and it is as if I should say Ah if I might enjoy my lawless pleasure and yet the Lord not be displeased some sick mans lusts after contradictions that in his fever he might drink wine and yet be free of a further pain of fever but all this is but a virtual fretting against God that ever he made such a Law Evah desired that the falsly supposed Godhead which Satan said should be the reward of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge should have been really and truly in eating that fruit and that was a clear fretting against the wisedom of God who made such a law as laies bands upon men and forbids them to eat of all fruit Gen. 3. 2 3. yet would difference be made betwixt the carnal mans wish that he might enjoy his sweet lusts and not feel the smart of the evil of punishment and the spiritual mans woulding not to do the evil that he hates Rom. 7. 15 16. and yet he does it and so virtually desires there were nothing offensive and displeasing to God in it 4. From this habit it is that the Spouse sends commendation to absent Christ to speak so and desires the daughters of Jerusalem to tell him that she is sick of love for him Cant. 5. 8. 5. There are checks and soul-sorrow at the thoughts of the words he once spake Cant. 5. 6. my soul failed when he spake hence there are godly reluctancies and spiritual propensions of the spirit and renewed man entering dissent and protestations on the contrary Rom. 7. 15. For that which I do I allow not for what I would that I do not but what I hate that I do Hence the spirits spiritual counter-workings contrary to the flesh and the gracious pleadings in favours of Christ What do you is not this against free love Ah will you grieve such a beloved hence the inward prickings and cuttings of the heart like the wane-rest of the Horologue ever stirring and checking the conscience if experience say nothing of this thorn in the soul and of the weakness of the bones little is known of the work of the spirit 6. There is ever an holy apology and clearing of the renewed part that the spirit doth his part Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God after the inward man v. 9. The renewed man would do good v. 16. consents to the Law that it is good and laies the blame upon the fleshly will and sin dwelling in the man v. 17. now it s no more I that do it but sin dwelling in me 7. From this habit it is that the renewed man is a captive a sufferer a complainer Rom. 7. 23 24. O wretched man that I am c. 8. The spirit is contrary to the flesh Gal. 5. 17. and when fire and water yoake in the cloud there is thunder and nature suffers pain and there are actions and passions and reactions on both sides and finally the habit of grace so far never rests as the flesh cannot get sin perfected without a battle and some thunder in the soul Hence we see did we improve the habit of grace how many spiritual actions we may set about and what wind and breathings we might fetch if we shouldâ—hoise up all the sails the very setting out to sea and laying all the sails open in their bredth and length to the heaven should create some wind we lay not open our affections in their length and bredth in the use of all the ordinances before the Lord Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it Psal 81. nor do we improve the stock of habitual grace the not improving of the stock in trading brings on poverty CHAP. V. The fourth particular by which we fetch influences of grace is by heavenly and spiritual dispositions hence in this we speak 1. Of heavenly dispositions in order to heavenly influences 2. Of our actings to come under the influences of grace 3. Of the obstructions and impediments of heavenly influences and the contrary cures AS touching dispositions 1. What dispositions are and how differenced 2. Of the division of good and evil dispositions 3. Get heavenly dispositions and influences connaturally follow 4. Evidences that dispositions go and come 5. Spiritual dispositions are different from the affections 6. There are heavenly dispositions through all the powers and affections of the soul 7. Sinful dispositions are in all and they latently creep in 8. Actings and life under deadness 9. Many sweet actings there are under deadness 10. It 's fit to go about duties under deadness 11. Less of strong real influences and more of moral influence prove the obedience to be more perfect 1. Dispositions are moveable qualities of the soul beyond and above the habit inabling us to act graciously and to perform actions suitable to those dispositions I speak now of gracious dispositions for there are wicked and sinful dispositions added to the habit of sin original 2. Gracious dispositions are moveable qualities this differenceth the disposition from the habit of grace and therefore know wherein spiritual dispositions and spiritual habits agree and 2. wherein they differ 1. Both are above nature for we being born in sin mind conscience will and affections being polluted and corrupt in such heirs of wrath no man is born with habits of grace or gracious disposition 2. Through the want of both all are alike unfit by nature to be the work-house of the holy Ghost 3. Both the habit of grace as it is proved Book 2. and much more gracious dispensations are the purchase of the merit of Christ 4. Both are the supernatural gifts of God infused from above and neither of them acquired or purchased by natural actings
9. Lord I have called daily unto thee I have stretched out my hands unto thee Psal 102. the afflicted soul saith v. 4. My heart is smitten and withered like grass And here though buried and dead bones scaâ—tered at the grave mouth as when one heweth timber speak and pray to God Psal 141. and the Church so overwhelmed so that they cannot speak Psal 77. 4. yet they speak prayers 2. There is holy complaining layed in the bosome of an apprehended angry God and though arrows of God stick in the flesh Psal 38. 1 2 3 4. Psal 119. 25. My soul cleaveth to the dust 28. My soul droppeth away for heaviness 83. I am become like a bottle in the smoke Psal 42. 1 2. Psal 6. 1 2 3 prayes and complaines in a holy way to God Like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter I did mourn as a dove mine eyes fail with looking upward O Lord I am oppressed undertake for me 3. It 's half a closing with a sinful disposition when it paines us lesse Paul protests against the fleshes sinful disposition Rom. 7. 15. I allow not the evil which I doe 2. He disowns it v. 17. It 's no more I that doe it but sin in me 3. He condemes himself for it v. 18. I know in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good 4. He complaines of it 23. I am led captive to the law of sin 5. His complaining so grows that he ends in an out-cry O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death and triumphs victoriously in Christ v. 25. From which it is clear that Paul and the flesh part open enemies and that there is no treaty of peace betwixt the spirit and the sinful disposition flowing from the flesh as if the flesh and the spirit were two free co-equal independent Lords and Princes and each must have his own kingdome and princedome to himself and the one must not encroach upon the other for the flesh and its complices must down and the spirit must be up in Christ Nor is there any arbitrary agreement of the matter for the spirit yields no liberty to sin nor gives away one jot or tittle of the holy Law to say Herod by the new covenant may keep his lust and Herodias so he gladly hear John the Baptist 4. There ought to be a going about of all duties of praying believing hearing praising c. under the lowest ebbings of the spirit and the saddest deadness so deadness and indispositions be the sin and sinful affliction and the afflictive sin of the child of God for our obedience to God is the more spiritual that it hath no moral motive from sense and comfort but rather the contrary save onely the word of command So excellently Christ Heb. 10. 9. Loe I come to doe thy will to suffer wrath and the curse for man but Psal 40. 8. I delight to doe thy will thy Law is within my heart His delight was in that saddest commandement to speak so in laying dow his life for his sheep and so had no sense to bear him up for an agony and sadnesse and sorrow to death was upon the holy Saviour when he obeyed and that peculiar law was in the inner part of his heart It 's true his Father loved him for it John 10. 17. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again But 1. It 's a question if in the act of suffering he felt that love when he complained that he was forsaken of God 2. Therefore the Father loved Christ and Christ did abide in his love because he kept his Fathers commandements John 15. 11. because they were the Fathers commandements 2. It 's a temptation to act under deadness which actually blunts the heart therefore to obey under a formal temptation is more spiritual obedience As for Christ to pray to believe to exhort his disciples to watch and when pain wrath the actual pressing curse puts him to tears and hideous cries Heb. 5. is a perfect copy to all obedience lesse thanks to you to pray when the heart is oyled with real influences and feasted with some holy and the bridegrooms hony-comb and the feelings of the out-lettings of freest love as what praise to a wheel to roll down the mount or for the fire to cast heat or the Sun to yield light Feelings of the strong impulsions and breathings of Christs love carry along such a strong necessity of obeying Christs love being a stronger and a more imperious commander then a fiery Law almost steals away the elective power but to pray under the frame and current of a dead disposition working and re-acting on the contrary from a principle that is strongly real but from pure moral influences from the pure spiritual commands 1 Thess 5. 17. Pray without ceasing and Psal 50. 15. Call upon me in the day of trouble is the most spiritual and perfect obedience That wine hath the most kindly taste and colour of wine and is preserved most connaturally that hath it's being on the mother grape it 's not so when there is something of art I know not what to preserve it by steel or something like that Hence appears the decitfulnesse of our hearts when the delight in the duty comes rather from a meer physical cause less moral to wit from the heavenly flamings of quickening influences not from the command the only kindly mother and moral motive of obedience The withdrawing of the rayes and beams of the personally near Godhead now as it were under a cloud which was wont to give the savourness of strong delight made our Redeemers obedience as is said the more excellent 2. It speaks much of savoury graciousnesse when the temptation is cos gratiae a whetstone to grace and to the spirit of adoption and as sailes and oares to praying and does not blunt us in duties 3. The greater combate with nature the more perfect is the obedience Abraham's natural disposition was strong to love Isaac his onely sonne to let the child take his good night at his aged mother but the command of Jehovah his God in covenant so prevailed as he would shift the temptation and hid the matter from the mother Sarah and strongly second the design of Gods trying with resolved pure spiritual obedience from only the command of God CHAP. VI. The place Luke 24. 32. Did not our heart burn c. is opened 2. Believers can tell the history of the actings of the Spirit 3. Feelings may be strongest after the actings of the Spirit 4. The differences between literal heat and spiritual heat in many particulars 5. And betwixt the Spirits actings with the Word and Enthusiastical raptures There be other holy dispositions most considerable specially these 1. Burning of heart 2. Enlargedness of heart 3. Fixedness of heart 4. Love-sickness after Christ Besides these there be special dispositions to pray
with a challenge of her refusing to open Ah! why did I not opâ—n while he did â—ovingly 〈…〉 knock and lovingly speak Open 〈…〉 my â—â—ster my love c. sense of Christ with chalâ—â—â—â—â—d good 〈◊〉 with tears for 〈◊〉 in the woman thâ—◠〈…〉 his feet with tears sense with faith going along 〈…〉 is commendable it s a spiritual case 〈…〉 up our recâ—nnings what we have profited spiritually by the heart-â—â—â—ingâ— wrought by Christ and this is a third diffrence The moral and 〈◊〉 man 〈◊〉 so â—â—prove his hear as to call himself to a reckoning nor 〈…〉 say wheâ— neere am I to God for my stirring 〈◊〉 reforming religion its kindly life-heat that makes the man more lively and vigorous While he spake The third particular who works burning of heart in these men speaking Jesus Christ when Christ takes the bellows and the fan and stirs up the fire it must needâ— burn boldly and when Christ casts in a coal in the soul it must make heart-flamings John 4. I am he that speaks to thee that made a fire in the womans heart then she leaves well and water-pot and runs to the City So Matth. 9. 9. Matth. 4. 20 21 22. with a word he kindles a fire in the brests of fisher-men who knew nothing of him before and hath an inward work upon the heart Cant. 5. He put in his hand by the hole of the door and my bowels were moved for him that was fire in the bowels and what did Christ here but speak words and this is the fourth difference with little pain but a word speaking he makes a fire There is a huge deal of violence in Esaus running sweating hunting Jacob stirred not after works but staid at home and believed and faith made him blessed the spirit drives not but by the words leading and perswading But is there no violence in the natural and literal heat Yea for Bâ—als priests to cut and bleed themselves with knives and cry till noon and to shout to a deaf God must have in it much violence and it s a very unnatural fire and its a most unnatural wild-fire heat to slay their young children to Molech A man who forces a sigh when a sigh forces not him is a sufferer but what violence is in the constraining Gospel-promise what compulsion is there in love or love-sickness when Christ makes love a key that opens all doors how strongly and how sweetly doth the word of promise carried on by the spirit of Christ force thy soul there is a huge deal of force and violence in fairâ—heed sickness as when a man makes and counterfeits distraction and madness and runs naked While he opened the Scriptures The fourth particular is the fewel that makes the fire the Scriptures opened and opened by Christs key Is not my word like a fire saith the Lord Jer. 23. 15. Yea in Christs baptizing there is fire John baptizeth with water and no more as a cold and watry seal but Christ Matth. â— 11. batizeth with the holy Ghost and with fire The word of prophesie was in Jeremiahs bowels as a fire shut up and this is the fift difference betwixt the literal and spiritual heat the heavenly heart-burning goes along with the Scriptures 2. With the Scriptures so opened and applied by the spirit of Jesus as by a strong power burning coals are cast into the heart As touching the former the difference betwixt this and the Libertines spirit or the Enthusiasts are to be observed and the spirit of the children of God 1. Christs spirit extols the Scriptures It is written saith Christ against Satan Have ye not read in the Scriptures saith Christ against the Sadduces Matth. 22. Search the Scriptures saith Christ they bear witness of me He taught the multitude and disciples as it s written in the Scriptures He rebukes them Luke 24. v. 25. as fools and slow of heart for not believing the Scriptures When he would carry in real influences of grace to the heart he carries them along by the Scripture and opens the understanding that they may understand the Scripture Luke 24. 45. that is the spirit of Satan in some who boast that they are beyond and above the word of the Kingdom and such must be beyond and on the other side of heaven 2. They who wait for the Lord and whose soul waits for God they hope in his word Psalm 130. 5 6. Libertines souls cannot wait for the Lord as the watch for the morning 3. It s a work of the spirit strongly to convince the conscience of not believing in Christ John 16. 7 8. now to believe in him is the sum of the Scriptures of the Gospel Enthusiasts extol perswasions by raptures according to which the brother killeth the brother as Bullinger relates in place of the Scripture-convictions of the spirit 4. The work of the spirit is to comfort for its the spirits office and the sound comfort is patience and comfort of the Scriptures bringing hope Rom. 15. 4. The spirit of Enthusiasts perswades men of peace and comfort without and beside the promises of the Gospel 5. The words of the book of the Law melt the heart of godly Josiah 2 Kings 19. 22. and the Lord looks to him that trembles at his word to dwell with him Isa 66. 2. The Enthusiasts boldly mock the word as an instrument of carnal and fleshly regeneration and seek a new birth from a spirit alone separated from the word 6. Deep humiliation is wrought by the word 2 Kings 22. 14. the pride of Satan reigns in the spirits of Enthusiasts who despise Scripture humility and reproach tears and the work of repentance as a work of the Law and the flesh 7. Strong and couragious fighting even to overcoming gets for a reward the hid manna the white stone and the new name written thereon which no man can read but he that receives it now fighting and overcoming is by the word of the spirit Rev. 2. 17. Eph. 6. 17. and faith in the word 1 John 5. 4. Enthusiasts tell us of a dumb and Scriptureless perswasion by which men are perswaded they are chosen to salvation and can know others by the face that are so chosen 8. The true spirit leads unto all truth John 16. 13 and opens the true sense of the Scriptures and leads no man by a new wild-fire light nor doth the spirit of God sway and determin a topick conjectural way while there is a speculative doubting as touching any light from Scripture whether the course be lawful or warranted by the word or not for the spirit of God leads by Scriptures infallibility Isa 59. 20 21. 9. The actings of the true spirit are gentle civil human and he bids us follow whatsoever is of good report whatsoever things are pure Phil. 4. 8 9. The spirit of Enthusiasts leaving Scripture licences men to abominations which Heathens abhor 10. The actings of the spirit of Christ are seasonable Matth. 10. 19.
do Psalm 51. 5. Jer. 14. 4. Isa 64. 8 9. Dan. 9. 5 6 11. Psalm 116. 6 7. 3. Cain Pharaoh Saul Magus never complain of themselves Heathens complain of sin original not as mans sin but as Socinians and Pelagians complain of it as mans misery and the Lords fault and sin with reverence to his holiness in that God and the step-mother nature have dealt worse with man in bringing him into the world naked weeping weak sick dying then with bulls that are born with thick skins and have horns to defend them It s a shameful accusing of God to deny original sin to be a transgression of the Law such as deserveth death eternal Ah our pride who dare bark against God when we should weep over our own wolfish and beastly nature Assert 3. We do not so much in the use of means as our lameness doth permit The Lord hath drawn a bill in the conscience that the blind will not so much as open their eye-lids we may be a law to our selves Rom. 1. 14 15. we know God by nature and glorifie him not as God Rom. 1. 2. 15. we may go many miles farther toward God by Natures light but we sit still 2. Yea we blow out the candle and here the criple and lame man breaks his own legs and arms the second time and complains of the Physitian Christ that he will not heal him against his will he who adds to his sickness a poyson drink cannot father his death upon the Physitian Ah we stir not broken legs and arms upon and towards the Physitian Christ 3. The criple may move and creep toward the Physitian The motion of such as stepped in the pool immediately after the Angel troubled the water John 5. was not a motion of perfect nature nor a perfect motion but yet a means of health it was Christ rejects not criple and sickly motions in using means towards himself Assert 4. The motions of the Spirit to come to the renewed mans case serve as legs to bear the criple-man but not as eyes for Psalm 119. 105. Thy word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path Yea a doubt it is if the motions of the Spirit as the Spirit without the word lay an obligation on us to follow these motions except when the Spirit speaks to Paul and Barnabas to go to Macedonia not to Bythinia and then the word of the Spirit becomes formally the word of the Lord as the word of Christ from his mouth is the word of God but heed is to be taken in a special manner when the bastard spirit speaks to Becold to Hichol and such wizards for God speaks like God and his own know his voice and the children of the Divel know also their fathers voice learn to go as far as you can in the way to Christ 1. No violence but from your own heart stands in your way the birth helps it self in the womb to come out work with the tide or against it he who rowes with oars in a manner helps the wind they desire not to sail who will not stir a foot to the ship 2. Hearing in Lydia and the Gaoler reading in the Eunuch diligent taking heed to the word of the Gospel preached by Phillip in the Samaritans the woman of Samaria conferring with Christ have in them though they come not up to the nature of a perfect duty somewhat of the ordinance of Christ and Christ loves to be in his own ordinances pro tanto its true the unrenewed man cannot use the means formally as they are referred to Christ and for Christ until his will and intention be renewed yet he is in the way to Christ and materially he comes to Christ nor is walking to the ship on dry land an act of sailing nor the sick mans journeying to the Physitian or his simple receiving of medicine an act of healing its good to come to the work-house of the spirit the preached Gospel and to lie under the breathing of the Lord when the word is spoken lend the letter of the Gospel lodging in the outer house the ear and literal understanding go in to the Potters house and stand beside the furnace and behold what work the Lord hath 3. Upon the wheels towards others and how many he meets with in the way of his ordinances frames the new creature in them makes a real change in them that you wonder at them knowing thy were blind and now they see 2. As for renewed ones these cases are considerable 1. When the letter of the Law is granted there is something and a great something wanting Psal 119. 29. remove from me the way of lying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be grace over thy Law to me which is first a suit that deeper and deeper spiritual impressions of God in the Law may be engraven on him till he be filled with all the fulness of God and influences may amount to a strong habit following of hearing reading conferring meditating with much praying for spiritual teaching from him as all along through Psal 119. would make us rich in influences 2. The natural man never misses life and quickning influences in the word the spiritual doth Psalm 119. 50. This is my comfort in mine affliction for thy word hath quickned me It s not a bad property of the earth to gape and thirst for rain there is no such gaping and thirsting in the rock the stone is never parched for want of rain but this parchedness is a neerest disposition for influences of sope and moisture from the clouds and though the thirsty man pray not yet thirst it self calls for watering influences as the Lord disappoints not nature so uses he not to frustrate gracious thirst of suitable influences of grace and these are put together and both are satisfied Psalm 145. 15 16 19. So his way Matth. 5. 6. Luke 1. 53. if thirsts for life and not for the bare condemning letter 3. There is something which we call fetching of the wind and casting of a board again to wind to the right harbour and it is a sort of courting the wind and that is the case of the soul that would live upon influences its fit to pant and gape and carefully wait on for the holy breathings of the Lord could we wait in the way that the Spirit uses to come and attend him in ordinances he must come that way as Zacheus cast himself in that way of Christ providence places two blind beggars in Christs way the Lord thereby bestows the Son of Davids mercy on them and providence placed the woman of Samaria at the well of Jacob and Christ must needs go thorow Samaria and her way she looked for water from Jacobs well and looked not for the Messiah yet she meets with him and feels his influences before she goes hence but we are with ordinances to lie at the tide and wait for and seek the flowings of
God of nature by a sort of necessity must give influences to the egg so prepared to be a living bird when the heart is boyling and seething with thoughts of the King the tongue is the pen of a ready writer When the heart is fixed Psal 57. 7. as if he were master of influences he humbly out of the abundance of the heart engageth to sing and give praise I my self will awake early There is here fire therefore the Lord shall blow upon his own kindling no question we may cast water on our own coals The heart of the two disciples is burning like an oven while Christ speaks to them by the way Luke 24. 31. yet they fortifie themselves and fetch reasons to strengthen unbelief so as they seem to fetch unbelief and unbelief comes not on them unsent for ver 21. We trusted that it was he who should have redeemed Israel we are beguiled This is the third day the women said he was risen again but none saw him Strangle not heavenly dispositions they shall break out Prop. 3. For the branches of enlargedness of heart there is a fulness of the holy Ghost in the Baptist in Steven which was not a transient disposition but a permanent habit but this breaks out in something more then an habit The Spirit of the Lord came upon Sampson in mighty influences when he broke the cords and carried away the ports of the City Psal 45. 1. My heart is inditing a good matter like a boyling and seething pot and that puts him to speak of the King Elihu Job 32. 18. I am full of matter the spirit within me constraineth me 19. Behold my belly is as new wine which hath no vent it is ready to burst like new bottles There was a heavenly spring a new fountain broken up in him and excellently beyond all the friends he pleads for the Lord his soveraignty O what fulness above measure above his fellows was in the man Christ the law was in his heart and the fulness of grace and as it were to overtake the running over well he takes whole nights to prayer and for Preaching and working miracles he hath not leisure to sleep or eat If there be a fire in Jeremiah's bowels what wonder then prophecying flame out of his mouth and he confess he was weary with forbearing Jer. 20. and God obtains his holy end The people are warned of their sin when Micah saith in opposition to the empty Prophets Micah 3. 6. But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord and of judgment and of might and that fulness fetches influences from heaven to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin This condemns the cold indifferent and dead actions of many who are far from that whatsoever ye doe doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the heart or soul which sayes some duties are soul-less actions and actions dead without heart and soul Isaiah would have us if we fast aright to give bread and not that only Isa 58. 10. but to draw out or vomit out so the word the soul to the hungry There is often great scarcity of the soul in our actions every acting in Gods way being an act of hypocrisie and a dumb and dead action When shall we lay the Lords glory to heart and do things from the soul Ah prayers without a soul what influences of grace are here hearing and no soul-hearing 2. There is a wideness and an all-ness in regard of wisedome Solomon had wisedome and largeness of heart as the sand that is on the Sea-shore 1 Kings 4. 29. So Paul Col. 1. 9. We cease not to pray that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisedom Eph. 1. 8. Christ hath abounded overflowed to us in all wisedome and prudence Col. 3. 16. Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisedome Here is wideness of heart 2. And Solomon was but a shadow and the sand of the sea which none can number a shadow of a shadow in comparison of Christ Col. 2. 3. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisedome And therefore he went about doing good up and down sowing good deeds to the world Acts 10. 38. Whom God anointed with the holy Ghost and with power Here is wideness of heart and abundance of influences and acting of good night and day 3. The wisedome of Angels is large Hence that wise as an Angel of God and also the fulness of God in their affections teacheth us that wideness of heart is outed in continual acting and so in multiplied breathings of God and Angels doe not walk and run onely but fly with wings cheerfully to doe the Lords will and what influences must be there when each having six wings they cease not night nor day to cry one to another Holy holy holy Lord God of hosts Almighty which was and which is to come the whole earth is filled with his glory Rev. 48. Isa 6. 3. 4. The glorified see him face to face that is wideness of heart and they serve him night and day and weary not Rev. 14. 2 3 4. Rev. 7. 9. 5. The more the Prophets and Apostles saw of God the more the heart is enlarged to teach and to warn every man Col. 1. 3. There is an enlargement of heart in loving Christ and in the experimental knowing and feeling thereof and in godly fear and joy Eph. 4. 19. Paul prays that the Ephesians may comprehend the love in all the dimensions of it That ye may be able to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye may be filled not that it may be in you but be filled 2. with fulness that is a wide fill 3. with the fulness of God that is yet wider 4. with all the fulness of God and then follow influences above the prayers of the godly v. 20. He is able to doe exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us Of the latter Isa 60. 5. when the Gentiles shall be brought in to the Church Thou shalt see and flow together thine heart shall fear and be enlarged And hence wideness of heart in acting the Church shall willingly receive them and with joy also and hold open their gates night and day v. 11. and influences of grace and glory shall so be rained on the Church that her Sun shall no more goe down nor her Moon withdraw it self v. 20. All her people shall be righteous 21. A little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong nation Nor shall they be weary in running Psal 92. 14. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing The oyl burns and the oyl grows for Isa 40. 31. They shall run and not be weary A glimmering of newes come that Christ is risen and John and Peter try their speed who shall be first at the grave and Magdalen outruns
thousand of the people that have set themselves round about me Psal 6. he prayes Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath have mercy on me return again O Lord deliver my soul That prayer is heard and the result is an heavenly disposition to part with wicked men 6. Depart from me ye workers of iniquity and a new disposition of assurance The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping And assurance that God heard the man is a new seed of praying to him again Psal 116. 3 4 5 6. Psal 18. 3 4 5 6. So Psal 31. after complaints and heavenly petitions v. 4. Pull me out of the net 9. Have mercy upon me O Lord make thy face to shine upon thy servant c. follow heavenly dispositions 1. Of commending the seeking of God v. 19. O bow great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee A disposition to encourage others to seek God v. 23. O love the Lord all ye his Saints c. A disposition to encourage fainters v. 24. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart How shall I get praying Praying helps to praying How shall I get holy dispositions Holy dispositions beget holy dispositions How shall I get courage and spiritual strength Psal 31. 24. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart that is be strong in the Lord and he shall make you strong in him So Psal 27. 14. Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thy heart wait I say on the Lord. The courage of faith is commanded and the argument is God shall strengthen thy heart and give thee courage As if we were the beginners of the good work so does the Lord frame his precepts promises to shake us out of our laziness that we abuse not his grace and gracious influences to wanton idleness So the Apostle Be strong in the faith and couragious and God shall strengthen your heart and furnish you So the Father speaks to his child lift at this burden I will lift your arms and strengthen them to lift the burden and to bear it 2. They are refuted hence who say The Lord bids us be of good courage and he knows courage and strength is from himself yea but so as you are to goe about acts of courage He bids us pray and he knows prayer is his own gift and the work of his Spirit It 's so here but he bids you pray that you may pray believe that you may believe So he commands heavenly dispositions and he only can give them So he commands heavenly habits and heavenly dispositions but yet so as ye act When a Physician enjoyns one for such a disease strive to have your body and cloathes to cast a good savour does he not enjoyn also that this sick man should carry about roses precious oyntments Would we act more in God and pray more and haunt more in heaven we should savour more of heaven And when men complaines of deadness it is with reflection on God he quickens me not and therefore I am dead his Son is the resurrection and the life and he sends no inflnences of life on me That is the physical cause and the Lord is free of your sinful deadness and unsavouriness in so doing Why complain of the moral faulty cause that is complain of your self complain that ye lie not among the roses ye are not much meditating and drawing life out of the precious promises ye are not often in wisedomes house ye are not much with the King at his banquet ye draw not near to his house of wine habits and heavenly dispositions grow from multiplyed spiritual acts and spiritual acts come kindly from heavenly dispositions My heart is fixed What is the particular disposition here aimed at For clearing of this know a disposition in general of which I spake above is one thing and this disposition is another These three must be differenced 1. The state 2. The temper and constitution 3. The disposition The state is to be renewed in Christ or in nature born of the spirit or yet remaining and walking in the flesh acted by the prince of the air that rules in the children of disobedience the birth and state of living is neither up nor down to the temper and constitution which is either strong and vigorous or weakly and sickly or betwixt these the state of living or birth consists in indivisibili if the man breath and live in nature or in Christ being now a translated person he hath a natural or a spiritual life but howbeit some be born again some are fathers and experienced radicated and confirmed Christians others are young men strong in the faith and both these are of a good spiritual temper and constitution But there are a third sort that are babes in Christ and though born again yet weakly and sickly frequent out-breakings much doubting liable to strong unmortified passions 1 John 2. 12 13 14. And to be born of God is common to all the three sorts and the essence and nature of the new birth agrees equally and univocally to them all all have their own influences finished to them from Christ but the spiritual tempers may differ as weak and strong healthy or sickly good or bad at least lesse good But as for dispositions of the regenerate they are qualities that go and come now anon I judge you will say the new-birth and the heavenly disposition are all one For David was born of God while he was under a wicked disposition to deflour Bathsheba to kill Vriah to be avenged no Nabal all which were bad dispositions when the new-birth is the new-birth and saving work of the spirit And again the spiritual disposition differs not a little from the spiritual temper 1. The spiritual temper is permanent as one is a weak man until he come out of his childhood for so many years or months he is Infant so long a child so long a youth So one is so long a babe in Christ and grows to be stronger in the faith and at length comes to be a father in Christ but even while the same babes age in Christ continues and the same weakly and sickly temper and inclination to yield to temptations in David new born and a babe good dispositions may be on to pray to praise to commit his life to God in extream dangers to make Psalms and yet Davids spiritual temper and constitution is and may be bad and sickly as Peter before our Saviours death is born again and a believer Matth. 16. 16 17. and by his much ignorance and frequent slips as acting Satans part in disswading Christ from the necessary work of redemption his carnal confidence in himself in saying he should never deny Christ his smiting off Malchus eaâ— his denial of Christ with an oath it appears that the spiritual temper was weak and much carnal nor can it be denied all that time when
Peters temper was weak but when he gave a confession of Christ Matth. 16. he was under a gracious disposition and Peters continuing with Christ in his temptations did suppose a gracious dispoâ—â—tion in these acts of his and the rest of the believing Disciples Luke 22. 29 30. 3. The Lords Disciples are all born again Judas excepted but it were hard to say that John the beloved Disciple was of the same temper before the death of Christ with Peter who proved more sinfully rash in many things then John 2. A disposition is a transient impression that may be left upon the spirit by an occurrence of providence which though it sometime continue long is not necessarily alway so Upon the supposed death of Joseph Jacob refused to be comforted upon the departure of the Ark Phineas daughter in law is disposed to die for sorrow which in a great part was a gracious disposition it s like this great deliverance left a strong impression on Davids spirit and brought out praising of God But to the particular this disposition is a fixedness of resolution to believe pray praise having its rise from this present merciful deliverance it s opposed to the trepidation and doubting of unbelief which made him say elsewhere One day or other I shall perish by the hand of Saul which also saith that this was not ever Davids condition but being deserted of God he was under a contrary disposition but good it were alway to keep the heart under such a fixedness Ah but we are up and down out and in as touching stedfastness and unmoveableness in the work of the Lord the Galatians did run well a while the balasting of saving grace is most necessary it was a sad word 2 Tim. 1. 15. This thou knowest that all they which are in Asia are turned away from me John 6. 66. from that time many 2. of his disciples 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 took them to things behind went backward and 4. walked no more with him they left both Christ and the profession of Christ It was a sad suspending of influences when all the Disciples forsooke him and fled Matth. 26. My heart is fixed my heart is fixed The second particular is the doubling of the words In this and in the following words we have divers considerable characters and properties of heavenly dispositions 1. The doubling noteth the heat and fervour of affection in David as that My God my God notes the heat of faith two gripes of faith is better then one so saith the tripling of that prayer O my Father O my Father remove this cup Matth. 26. There is fire in the desire Psalm 57. 1. Be merciful to me O God be merciful to me and twice in this Psalm v. 5. Be thou exalted O God c. and again v. 11. Be thou exalted O God Psalm 46. that is doubled the Lord of hosts is with us v. 7 11. for his mercy endureth for ever is repeated twenty six times in one Psalm 1. In sinners in Christ it could not be it notes a sort of distrusting of the Spirit they will not believe the heart at the first word Not unto us O Lord that is not enough the heart is ready to steal the Lord's glory therefore he addeth not unto us but unto thy name give the glory therefore the doubling of it speaks the certainty Gen. 41. 32. 2. It notes that we are to make an eik to our assurance my heart is fixed O God therefore two witnesses are better then one he says it over again my heart is fixed for we shall deny that any such heavenly disposition was in the hour of temptation and say all is but false work in so doing he blows the coal when he finds it smoaking and blows twice and strikes the iron again and again when he finds it hot So he awakes up tongue and voice musick and harp gift and grace to praise the Lord as when he finds his heart in a praising disposition he desires an eik of all creatures in heaven and earth Psalm 103. all the Angels all his hosts all his works in all places of his dominion to joyne with his soule to blesse the Lord v. 20 21 22. 3. It notes a fiercenesse and a strong flaming of the affection and a sort of violence of assenting to the influences of grace which brought on that holy disposition which teacheth us when holy dispositions offer a divine violence to the soul to joyn our violence to his violence we will run that is our violence Draw me that is his violence Psalm 119. 32. I will run the way of thy commandments and press my self to willing and hot obedience if thou shall or when thou shall enlarge my heart 2. To this purpose we are to meet his actings of love Cant. 1. 4. The King brought me into his chambers with extolling and praising his love we will be glad and rejoyce in thee we will remember thy love more then wine the upright love thee 3. Let us intend and enlarge the acting of our heart to him Christ puts in his hand by the hole of the door which was a strong inward stirring of the Spirit of Jesus and the Spouse meets this with bended and mighty acts of loving obedience As 1. My bowels were moved for him For whom for him my Beloved who did stand and knock while his head was full of dew and his locks wet with the drops of the night v. 2. 2. I rose up to open to my Beloved and my hands dropped with myrrh and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock Here are both repentance in rising to open whereas she excused and shifted the business before and sense of the savouriness and heavenly feeling as of a sweet smell of myrrh joy sense of joy and delight in obedience to him 4. There is a formal holy violence offered to him the Angel Christ wrestles with Jacob which is a sort of fighting and opposing his strength to Jacobs strength and he opposeth trying and tempting reason to Jacob Let me go for its dawning and Jacob opposeth his violence on the contrary I will not let thee go until thou bless me And the Beloved is wrestling to win away after long absence and much painful seeking Cant. 3. 1 2 3. but the Spouse offers violence on the contrary with all her strength I held him and would not let him go until I brought him to my mothers house and unto the chambers of her that conceived me 5. Its sit to meet a thirst of the Lords Spirit in a flowing of feeling with a thirst of faith when Christ saith to Thomas John 20. 27. Reach hither thy finger and behold my hand and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side this was a great condescension of Christ in bestowing on him a flowing of feeling and Thomas answers it with a strong act of the application of faith My Lord and my God 6. When
strong convictions come upon the spirit we are to yield our hearty assent to him Matth. 27. 54. the Centurion and the watchers of Christ seeing the earth-quake and other wonders from heaven say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 23. 47. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 true certainly undoubtedly this was the Son of God this was a righteous man but ah he calls and we answer not we love to be wrought on as stones and blocks and could wish to be carried sleeping to heaven in Christs bosome 2. We often suffer the heart to cool and obey not the Spirit in his heavenly disposition and let the fire die out and the furnace cool 3. It were good if we did not counter-work heavenly dispositions by refusing and shifting Cant. 5. 3. of God and the actings of his Spirit Cant. 5. 2. open to me nay saith the Spouse how can I open The third particular is that David speaketh this prayer-ways to God there may be so heavenly a disposition upon the child of God as he dare lay it before God in point of sincerity that it is not rotten David prayer-ways lays before God the fervor of his desire of God Psalm 42. 1. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God Psalm 63. 1. My soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee Psalm 119. 103. How sweet are thy words unto my mouth v. 97. O how love I thy law Psalm 139. 17. How precious are thy thoughts to me And the Church saith Isa 26. 8. Yea in the way of thy judgements we have waited for thee O Lord the desire of our soul is to thy name Jer. 15. 16. Thy words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoycing of my heart for I am called by thy name O Lord God of hosts Q. 1. May we not lay out rotten and unclean hearts before God A. No doubt the pained man may lay out his boils before the Physitian and confession of sins and of the evil of our ways make way to making of a new creation in us Psalm 51. 5 10. Q. To what end should we speak to God of the sincerity of heavenly dispositions and fixedness of heart A. 1. Because neither David nor any of the Saints can order their own hearts under heavenly dispositions therefore the telling of this to God is a seeking help from him to improve these dispositions Peter cannot make use of the glory of Christs transfiguration which he saw except grace help in a manner glory and the Lord inable Peter to make the right use of it as he doth 2 Pet. 1. 16 17. and not as he doth Mark 9. 5 6 7. The Spouse banqueting with Christ in his garden eating honey and the honey-comb is in greater danger to miscarry and turn sleepy and carnally secure as it fell out Cant. 1. 2 3. then when she wants his presence Cant. 3. 1 2 3. It s not easie to guide a new heart or to guide and use well the heaven of a fixed heart and such heavenly disposition at the Kings banquet of wine when he gives the hidden manna and the white stone when Christs banner over you is love and his left hand under the head and the right embracing you there is then if ever need to pray and Christ is our precedent in this when he was transfigured and in that heaven so as he seemed to be beyond praying in a state of praising yet he prays Luke 9. 29. and then there is need of watching yea a believer is to pray in a good sense to be delivered from the evil of our prayers and from the sinful abusing of spiritual acts of a renewed heart from the evil of the flowings of free grace and heavenly dispositions so to speak and therefore should we tremble for fear that our sinful abuse of the impressions of the Spirit and heavenly dispositions move not the Lord to hide his face from his own shinings of grace and darken his own Sun and overcloud his noon-day beams and rays of light and love and who knows that God may mar his own feast and remove the table before the believer eat because he was sinfully wanton at the sight of dainties and prayed not humbly that Christ would bless his coming down to his garden and his banqueting with his Spouse Psalm 141. David prays for his own prayers it s a great art to carry equally the running over cup of consolation or to guide the comforts of the Spirit when the man is high the head is giddy Psalm 77. 6 7. I will offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of praise I will sing yea I will sing praises to the Lord this hath been a warmly condition of his spirit therefore he follows it with prayer v. 7. Hear O Lord when I cry with my voice The body being warm and sweating there 's need to take heed that cold get not into the heart 2. To tell the Lord of our fixedness of heart is a sort of in aging of him to perfect his own new building and to send rain and summer warmness on his own sowing and to perfect what he hath begun and it s a secret praying that God would make an eik to his own work that he would give influences of grace and would be pleased to milk out holy actings willing and doing out of holy dispositions Psalm 119. 35. Make me to go in the path of thy precepts for therein do I delight If the Lord give freely of grace a disposition to delight in his precepts he will also give grace to walk in his paths he that made the plant creates the tree and the fruit he who made the vine-tree makes the Summer-sun to nourish it v. 159. Consider how I love thy precepts quicken me O Lord according to thy loving kindness The Lord who gives the life of love and a warmly disposition of heart to the precepts of God must also give more quickning to that life he that brings the sown corn to a blade brings it to an ear of corn and to be bread the saving work of grace is one piece one building foundation walls and covering it s one growing tree root bulk and branch one compleat new man Doth the Lord of free grace create half a new man or rear up half a new building No grace is grace is grace going on and advancing till it be reaped grace and so glory 3. He tells the Lord of his fixed heart by way of thanksgiving and praise as Psalm 131. Lord my heart is not haughty he lays before the Lord the depth of the mercy of heavenly dispositions and of a fixed and prepared heart though he was at the mouth and entry of death the cave was like to be his burial place being chased for his life into it yet he tells the Lord he feared no evil in the valley of death Hence 1. Try
upon Jahaziel but he was not idle but prophesied and stirred up himself to believe Often it 's said the Spirit of the Lord came upon Sampson yet so as Sampson roused up himself and shook himself Judg. 16. 20. Spirit-raptures wherein we lie from duties are but delusions all the visions raptures and high actings of the Spirit set men on to duties of hearing prophecying praying See all the Scripture for this CHAP. XI Of the fourth disposition which is Love-sickness 1. Parts of the Text. 2. The meeting of Believers for godly conference is owned by the Lord. 3. Smaller means of grace and short visits of Christ are to be highly esteemed especially when flowings are neglected 4. Sense is prouder then Faith 5. Withdrawings of Christ teach us profitably 6. Except we find Christ we cannot pray as becomes 7. The real withdrawings of Christ make no real change in moral or legal interests four great interests stand entire and safe under desertion 8. What love-sickness is 9. The wisedome of God in suspended influences of grace 10. The wisedome of Soveraignty therein and how dependance on the Lords guiding is best 11. How we may deprecate the pain of love-sickness and pray for comforts and influences and 12. may contradict the Lords permissive will 13. We are to have peace as touching the satisfied for guilt of sin when we have not peace with the inherent blot 14. How Love-sickness rightly pains 15. Pain of Love-sickness 16. Sense above faith 17. The Idol of moderation 18. Of spirtual savouriness Cant. 5. v. 8. I charge you O daughters of Jerusalem if ye find my beloved that ye tell him that I am sick of love 9. What is thy beloved more then another beloved O thou fairest among women what is thy beloved more then another beloved that thou dost so charge us THe charge by an oath is given to the daughters of Jerusalem of whom the Holy Ghost Cant. 2. 7. Cant. 1. 5. If you find my beloved in the Ordinances by hearing or prayer tell him what shall you tell him a passionate kind of speech that I am sick of love Greek wounded with love pained for the want of Christ in his comfortable presence who was now to her feeling absent Here is a comfortable dialogue between the Spouse and her companions who are less experienced with the way of Christ then she there was a more comfortable dialogue betwixt Christ and the Spouse but she slighted that and therefore now is glad to speak with the servant when the Master is away In the words there is the Spouses speech containing a charge that the daughters of Jerusalem carry a message to Christ 2. The particular message I am sick of love 3. The daughters of Jerusalem their reply and carnal disposition is noted bewraying their ignorance of Christ and finding fault with vehemency of words doubled What is thy beloved what is thy beloved more then another beloved 2. Yet a feeling of some savouriness in the Spouse in her love-sickness O thou fairest among women The Church did formerly of late confer with Christ and refused to open to him when he was knocking and showring down influences of grace now she is glad to confer 1. With the smiting watchmen where she found little of Christ 2. Next with private Christians in Assemblies This is a mean of the Lords showring down of influences in the publick and domestick or less publick meetings of his Saints for ordinances of all sorts that are appointed of Christ they drop down savoury and seasonable dews The Lord writes in his book the savoury conferences of such as fear the Lords name Mal. 3. 16. and three things follow 1. The Lord owns such as are his 2. His forbearance though there be faults in their service 3. His making known to his the difference betwixt such as serve God and such as serve him not and Zech. 8. the inhabitants of one City encourage the inhabitants of another and the fruits of it is 1. Praying 2. Owning the Saints And they take hold of the skirt of a Jew and both say Christians meeting for prayer and conference want not God who raines down impressions of grace upon them as his people especially when they warm one another as many coales in one heap make a great fire Nor is the acting of the Spirit tied only to the publick Ministery the Saints take to their houses clusters of wine-grapes which they feed upon at home Let the Saints meet and by conference and prayer draw down new influences of the spirit Jude 20. Isa 2. 1 2 3. Jer. 50. 4 5. Col. 3. 16. Heb. 3. 13. 10. 24. 1 Thess 5. 14. Tell him Why did not you your self tell him when he knocked and spake and said Open to me my Sister She might have told him her self when he lovingly knocked and sweetly and comfortably spoke open to me my Sister now she is glad wanting his own presence to send salutation to absent Christ Ah I cannot see him my self but tell him I charge you that I am sick of love What speaks such a dispensation but 1. Saints be content to sail with an half-wind or a side-wind and improve it well Husbandmen in the midst of a long continued drought bless the Lord for twelve hours of Summerâ—rain that brings a comfortable reviving A sight of the Lord in the wilderness of Judah Psal 63. when David cannot have Sanctuary-presence is good A prayer of the prisoner or a groan or Psal 102. 19 20. teares by the rivers of Babylon and a praying eye and heart looking out at Daniels window when all those are banished and exiled captives farre from the Temple are sweet and we are to make use of these lesser dispensations though the well be ebbe in a drought yet here the water is sweet Fret not because it's as Bernard saith rara hora brevis mora His visits are but half-visits and short yet they speak whole rich and everlasting mercy little gold may arle a rich mans inheritance Ab I have seen showres of influences in plenty and now feeds me with far off and half-bedewings did ye use them well when ye had them 2. It sayes that sense is prouder then faith Sense complaines the breathings of the spirit are not strong the wind is not fair But faith is not content to look through the key-hole and see the half of his face and is humbler Ah may I but hear of him or kiss his feet and weep over them touch but the skirts or the hem of the garments of Christ and it is good Some must be feasted with the King taken into his house of wine embraced in his armes or there is no peace but fretting But here faith was commended as great Matth. 15. who would be well pleased with the crums that fall from the table nay it was humble and hungry and yet lively faith Luke 15. 18 19. Father I have sinned I am no more worthy to be called
a manner legal the Father made him ours by free gift the withdrawing of influences 2. The shining and smiling 3. the suspending of influences needful for the act of feeling is physical and real The Lords outward dispensations make no change of 1. Covenant-interest the Covenant is eternal the Lords absence from his own is not eternal Nor is there change in relation of interest no distance of miles no frowning or hiding of his face makes Christ leave off to be a husband a head a ransom-payer a Father 2. Faith layes hold on right and on propriety When the heirs possession is suspended and an out-lawed heir here is an heir the use of the breathings and influences is removed the mill stands and grindeth not the ground is plowed yet the same Lord and heritor of mill and land remaines Hang not your rights writs and charters upon your sense or upon the ups and downs of the Lords dispensation nor doth a believers heaven stand in the particular out-lettings of the Lords free grace or his withdrawings though the more of the Spirit any hath the more doth their spiritual life and being depend upon the operations of grace as all things that grow and have life depend upon the influences of the Sun and Heaven trees and plants and flowers and herbs suffer a sort of death by the departure of the Sun from them and they begin to live again when in the spring the Sun moves near toward them so are the out-goings and gracious influences of the Sun of righteousnesse to the renewed ones in whom is the life of Christ for Christ keeps in being his own life and cannot but keep it in being and operation Rom. 8. 10. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness v. 11. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in you See both the life of grace in this life is kept in being by the Spirit and the life of the body which shall be made spiritual in the resurrection is restored again by the Spirit of Christ 2. Deserted soules under the Lords withdrawing would neither cast away their confidence nor be too securely comforted when the Lord withdrawes to speak to the former the right in Christ is entire 2. The bargain of Redemption Christs act of buying and dying and paying a price for his own 3. The care of the trust and charge of redeemed soules committed to Christ 4. The act of Atonement made by Christ accepted by God by which justice and the law stands fully satisfied are all whole and untouched under desertion For our obedience is neither in whole nor in part neither in toto nor in tanto any penny of satisfaction to the law but payed upon another account All these 4. stand entire and the land and shore sail not and move not though the green Sailer judgeth so because he and the vessel are in sail 2. Nor is it safe to sleep and lie and be secure when the Spirit in his flowings withdraws It speaks some out-cast or out-lawry and the child should not be quiet when he knows the Father is displeased nor would Ministers heal them with all Gospel and hony and lay aside all Law for what cures help the disease and the first fever the same are good some way for the second fever and recidivation I am sick of love As Cant. 2. Greek wounded of love the Hebrew word imports weakness Judg. 16. 11. If they bind me with ropes I shall be weak as another man Hence it implies languishing pain through want of the feeling and enjoying of Christs presence Cant. 2. 5. Cant. 3. 1 2 3. Cant. 3. 6 8. 2. It implies sicknesse and weakening of the person as in Amnons love to his sister Tamar 2 Sam. 13. 1 2 3 4. It comes from apprehended wrath and the curse of the Law Psal 90. 8. Psal 32. 3 4. Psal 6. 1. Psal 38. 1 2 3 4 c. Dan. 9. 11. Rom. 7. 24. Isa 33. 24. Job 13. 24. Psal 77. 7 8. Psal 88. Psal 80. 7 19. 3. It imports the feeling of that pain The second act of sicknesse Matth. 9. 12. as to the pain through want of feeling and enjoying God 1. Two things are here 1. The want of the life though the believer be still loved chosen redeemed translated from death to life but the Lord who can put a check-lock and an iron bar on all our comforts withdrawes and lets the Spouse swoon and stayes not the heart with flagons of wine and apples that is with the effectual applying of the word of promise by which the heart is established or strengthened Jam. 5. 8. Rom. 1. 11. and by which we stay and rest our selves upon the word the Lord 2 Chron. 32. 6 7 8. Acts 14. 21 22. 2. There is here suspending and the want of the consolations of the Spirit the comforter which is the other want Now the Lord hath holy and necessary reasons why he suspends influences to the feeling and knowledge of these rich comforts 1. His holy Soveraignty Now soveraignty never acts separated from infinite wisedome when it 's most abstract from the object as in making a world or not creating any thing in ordaining of the same lump some to be vessels of honour and some of dishonour There is a reason of the object but never a reason concludent or so objectively binding and limiting the Lord but the contradicent to wit no created world no ordaining of some to honour and some to dishonour should be as good As we see in thousands and millions of possible worlds of other men other Angels and other creatures which he can create 2. Infinite wisedome judges it fitter that old Jacob weep and be not comforted that Joseph be sold into Egypt then be a rejoycing free Patriarch at home that the man Christ lie before him with tears and strong cries then that it be otherwise 3. To infinite wisedom it is clear that a creature and a sinful creature cannot so measure out sense and comfort as the only wise God as it is not so fit all the members of the house servants children strangers should be their own stewards of the bread wine and dainties of the house spices ointments myrrhe aloes and cassia as that there should be one wise and faithful servant over the family that all and every one hand over head run not to the heap Therefore is the Lord to be adored in his wisedome as much in withdrawing influences of sense and comforts as in bestowing them Judge if all the fatherless infants and pupils and minors of the earth were left to be fathers and tutors to themselves how would it be with their inheritances If all the sick on earth were their own only Physicians whether old or
young should it not be ill with the health of many Some cures are worse then the diseases there is a sickly and unnatural thirst on some persons sick of a feaver it would be ill with them if either abundance of wine or a fountain of water were at their bed-side the choise and elective faculty of the sick mans mind is often as sick as his body Let me not then be my own comforter but let the Spirit of infinite wisedome enjoy his own office and be the other comforter whom the Father sends in Christs name Q. May not such as are sick of love pray for sense and comfort Answ There are some relative mercies that the Saints may pray for and if they be denied praise and blesse the Lord for the denial of them because we often pray for sense comfort full assurance not as they are acts of gracious duties which were good but as they are taking and alluring rewards and wages before we doe our work Q. 2. Is not languishing pain in love-sickness after Christ an evil to be prayed against Answ No question we may pray against swooning and fainting of the life of God and may pray for the contrary comfort but with submission to infinite wisedom Some diseases are so diseases as some fluxes and some fevers as they are also medicinal helps of health and healthy and lively diseases The Lord and nature under the Lord gives excellent medicine who knows but Hezekiah's running botch which was otherwise deadly was a natural help to his fifteen yeares health and life which followed Look not on the holy Lord when he is acting as a Physitian as if he were acting as a Judge Want with good will the sense and comfort that the Lord would have you want in his infinite wisedome Obj. But whatever we pray for we are to pray for it with submission and a reserve to holy soveraignty as well as we are to pray for sense and comfort Answ It is a doubt and a great one whether with alike submission we are to pray for that which is bonum honestum and a gracious duty as we are to pray for bonum jucundum that which is pleasant or the reward of a duty Hence the question Whether it be lawful to pray for saving influences of grace and how far whether conditionally or absolutely Hence the first Assertion Assert 1. Whatever the clay suites from the potter it should be suited 1. With that general submission or rather subjection which all creatures as creatures owe to their Creator Hence the clay cannot contradict the potter though but a sinful man and say why hast thou made me thus Rom. 9. 20. 2. A negative submission is far required as the contrary to wit a chiding and contending with the Lord in any case whether he give or deny influences is unlawful it 's sin to reply on the contrary to judge or misjudge God v. 20. Isa 45. 9. Woe to him that strives with his Maker See the word in the Hebrew Assert 2. It is most lawful to seek influences of grace for duties at all times 1. The Saints doe pray for influences Psalm 119. 25. Quicken me according to thy word 27. Make me understand the way of thy precepts 29. Grant me thy law graciously 33. Teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes 35. Make me to goe in the paths of thy commandements Cant. 1. 4. Draw me 2. We may pray that God would withdraw his influences from sinful actings Psalm 119. 29. Remove from me the way of lying Psalm 141. 4. Incline not my heart to any evil thing to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity Matth. 6. 13. Lead us not into temptation 3. Influences to will and to doe are promised in the covenant of grace Deut. 30. 6. Jer. 32. 39 40. Ezek. 36. 27. and so doth Christ promise the Spirit and his teaching John 14. 26. convincing John 16. 7. guiding v. 13. Then we may suit from God what he promises to give 4. Our will is to be conform to the holy will of God in his law Rom. 12. 2. 1 Thess 4. 3. 1 Pet. 2. 5. Then may we seek necessary helps for these actings 5. Christ commends praying for the Spirit Luke 11. 13. Matth. 6. 9. John 16. 23. and James is clear in it Jam. 16. 6. and therefore he commands also praying for the saving operations of the Spirit and his influences Assert 3. There is a two-fold contradicting of the Lords will One by way of replying striving and challenging the Lord as doing unequally This is condemned in the cited places Rom. 9. 10. Isa 45. 9. There is another humble contradicting in the woman of Canaan Matth. 15. 26 27. In wrestling Jacob when the Lord sayes Let me goe Gen. 32. 26. In Moses interceding Exod. 32. 10 11 12. Yea when Christ commands the disciples to watch and in order to watching citeth the Prophecie of Zechariah c. 13. who foretold that the flock should be scattered and that they should sinfully forsake and deny their Master he also charges them to contradict that permissive will and decree of God by which it was ordained that the Lord shall withdraw his influences from Peter and the rest of the disciples that their sinful weaknesse might appear therefore suppose the Lord say it 's my decree and will to deny influences of grace to us in such particular actings it 's the Lords mind that we should humbly contradict that holy will and desire and pray in the contrary nor can the Lord command the reasonable creature to will or not to desire saving grace for so the holy Lord should command sin yea to desire and pray for grace is our duty commanded in the Law and by Christ Matth. 6. 12 13. Luke 11. 13. even when we pray that the Lords name may be hallowed his kingdome come and his will to be done by us and others cheerfully Matth. 6. 9 10 11 12. we desire to be kept from sin and to have grace in all things to obey the Lord though we know that he denies his saving influences to us and to many others Assert 4. With this holy contradicting of the Lord will is conjoyned an humble submitting to the Lords denying of saving influences without a sinful counter-working of his holy will now revealed or without charging folly or unequal dealing upon the Lord. For 1. His own grace is his own grace and he is free of all debt and obligation to give gracious influences to Angels or men as also grace to use the measure of grace given is rather to be sought then a large measure 2. There is in love-sicknesse for Christ a weakness of the soul and a fainting for the want of Christ and this may come from the apprehended curse and anger of God for sin which is a disease after conversion that the child of God may be sick of So David Psal 6. 1. Lord rebuke me not in thine anger
Rev. 2. 5. But that proves nothing it 's because the elect in that place doe fail and there be not any chosen thereto called 5. Nor should the glory of conversion be due to the grace of God but to our well-guiding free-will and to the works of righteousnesse that we had done contrary to 2 Tim. 1. 9. Tit. 3. 3. Eph. 2. 4 5. if we could procure by our good endeavours our own conversion 6. But so much the man fallen in sin is under the state of enterditement as the eldest Son of a King who is a fool is declared an idiot and the government not committed to him In the Gospel the Lord hath declared man a simple fool and laid the Princedome of grace and glory upon the Catholick Tutor and chief heir Christ Jesus yet we fools will needs be Masters and Free-men before we have served our apprenticeships Gladly would we be from under the dominion of Christ and free grace and be our own yea even fools and mad men take it not well to be fettered and in bands 7. Influences of free grace and the gracious actings of the spirit are paid for by the price of blood Heb. 13. 15. Let us by him then offer to God the sacrifice of praise continually Phil. 4. 18. Heb. 13. 15 20 21. 2 Thess 2. 16. The budding and blooming of the branch in every act of growing depends upon the immediate impulsions of life and from the sap of life that is in the root and the vine-tree Christ Assert 2. But the habit and seed of God being within though the indisposition be great yet we would act doe well 2. Because a natural heat in literal stirring doth pre-paratively work upon the soul though not by way of any Gospel-promise to make it ready to receive an influence of believing Moses his wondering at the bushes burning and it was not consumed made him draw near to see more of God and the acting of faith and wondering ripened Christs hearers for influences of believing so Cant. 5. 6. Moving of the bowels makes way for influences of opening to let the Beloved in and of praying and seeking 2. The very noise and literal stirrings in these actings have far-off acting upon the dead habit to awake it up so beating of the lump of perfume wakens up the smell The blowing of the wind on the garden of delicious flowers extracts sweet smelling the first three or four throwings of the iron bolt in the ship brings not out water but five or six causes the water to flow out apace The two disciples conferring Luke 24. concerning Christ crucified seem cold and indifferent yea there is much unbelief and deadnesse on the Spirit v. 21. We trusted that it should have been he which should have restored Israel though they say he was a Prophet mighty in word and deed before God and all the people v. 19. Yet their speech saith their heart was very cold concerning his office as Redeemer and concerning his Resurrection but they goe on in the conference and pursue the duty though literally till he begun v. 25 26 27. to open the Scriptures to them and then the heart begins to burn with heat v. 32. It 's considerable that the woman of Samaria's is very literal at the beginning and only concerning Jacobs well yet she going on in the conference there comes a warmnesse and a liking and a seeking of the water of life and a discerning of Christ to be a Prophet and at length a warmnesse of faith in believing him to be Christ and a leaving of the water-pot and a running to the City to invite others to come to Christ Here it is that the first three or four steps bring not heat upon the man but to walk a mile brings warmnesse To strike the flint oftner then once brings out fire at length and when there is a kindled and a fixed habit of grace and gracious dispositions flamings of heavenly dispositions follow apace because creation is a mids to the execution of the decree of predestination to life eternal therefore he who in predestination to life giveth his own to Christ John 17. 2 6 11 12. v. 6. hath established a new supernataral providence or a providence of redemption different from that providence of God Creator which should have been if Adam had never sinned Of this providence these Scriptures are to be understood John 5. 17. My Father worketh hitherto and I work Col. 1. 16. All things were created by him and for him 17. He is before all things and in him all things consist Hence Rev. 3. 14. He is the beginning of the Creation of God Col. 1. 15. Who is the image of the invisible God the first born of every creature Rev. 21. 5. And he that sate upon the throne said Behold I make all things new Heb. 1. 3. Vpholding all things by the word of his power 1. As by the first fall all things fell 2. The first Adam was the publick catholick misguiding Tutor who marred and destroyed all and the Creation and the workmanship of heaven and earth was made subject to vanity because of mans sin and is now as a woman travelling in birth crying in pain under corruption and vanitie Rom. 8. 20 21 22. So the second Adam coming to the throne made a new heaven and a new earth and as a Midwife to the travailing woman brings forth the birth the free sons of God carries on the work in bringing the man Christ in the world for the man Christ is not created and brought in the world by God simply as Creator and Law-giver by the covenant of works but by God as now acting to redeem the world and making a new Creation and a new world 3. Hence the blessing of the creature and of the earth which was under a curse for mans sin Gen. 3. 17 18. is now from Christ whom he hath appointed heir of all things Heb. 1. 2. and by reason of Christs reigning and sitting at the helm of the world and governing all things all the creatures because of this King are called to rejoyce as Psal 96. 11. Let the heaven rejoyce aâ—d the earth be glad let the Sea roar and the fulness thereof 12. Let the field rejoyce and all that is therein then shall all the trees of the wood rejoyce Psalm 98. 8. Let the floods clap their hands let the hills be joyful together See Isa 49. 13. Isa 65. 7. Jer. 31. 11 12 13. 4. And look as when a Kings son and heir is married all the servants and Courtiers are cloathed in Scarlet and gorgeous apparel So when Christ is declared Mediator husband and head of the body the Church the whole servants of the creation have a new right through Christ the heir of all to the liberty of the sons of God and to be delivered from bondage And hence the Saints have a right through Christ to the influences of this new providence the chief of which
wrath to such as use no means he that plows none but sleeps in Summer shall be cloathed with rags but there is no word that all who plow painfully shall be rich men and cloathed in scarlet Prov. 28. 7. He that turns away his ear from hearing the Law even his prayer shall be abomination but all that hear the Law are not converted this shews that the Lord is provoked by the not using of means in natural men as both the Lords plea with the wicked cleareth and their sinful neglect of not putting God to it to see if God will not do more when they have done but a little of their duty the Lord is at the pains to charm them and doth it wisely they will be deaf as the adder well then Psal 58. since they will keep the Serpents poison whether God who useth means to the contrary will or no. v. 4 5 6. Break their teeth O God in their mouth 7. Let them melt away as waters which run continually 8. As a snail which melteth let every one of them pass away So plagued and melted away sinners you might have been charmed by God and would not can you blame God Jer. 51. 9. We would have healed Babylon but she is not healed well then it follows forsake her let us go every one into his own Country for her judgement is reached up to heaven and is lifted up unto the skies So God is clear and even Babylons refusing to be healed and to hear the Prophets and her nelecting means is justly plagued Prov. 1. 20. What can wisedom do more but cry and utter her voice and throw over the line to such as are in the Kingdome of darkness the promises 22. Behold I will pour out my spirit to you But v. 24. Ye refused no man regarded 25. ye set at nought all my counsel and would have none of my reproof 29. They hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord and therefore the Lord laughs at their destruction and mocks when their fear cometh And Luke 14. 16 17 18. many are bidden come to the Supper and the Lord is cleared an offer is made to them they all with one consent refuse the use of other means and the Lord saith none of them who were bidden shall taste of his Supper So the Lords justice goes no farther then the obstinacy of men who refuse to come in at the outer gate opposes him Christ and reprobates so never come to wrestling and to ay and no in the inner gate or in the pains of the new birth the sentence of a refused treaty with Christ long e're it come to the out-breaking of the new birth cuts them off green corn is frost-slain long e're it come to the blade and it 's not the rotting of a white and ripe harvest that is the loss of it it 's just providence in the Gardiner to cut down and throw over the hedge a plant that is withered while it is yet young as it is right that he hew down a tree ready to bear fruit when it 's barren and rotten The Lord hath not set down in his word the degrees of transgression against the covenant of works some in Adam might have been more some less grievous transgressors should all have been saved or damned by that only covenant and since it cannot be denied that multitudes within the visible Church perish for their sin against the Law or the externally proposed Covenant of grace and yet all these so perishing are not alike guilty our Saviour says some had greater guiltiness in his sufferings then Pilate had John 19. 11. holy and spotless justice doth cut off some in their sins for sinning against that Covenant whether it be the Covenant of grace so called or the Covenant of works who even are many mile distant from sinning against the actings of the regenerating spirit and some come neerer to the strangling of the new birth and are cut off by holy justice also When our Saviour saith John 3. 18 36. He that believeth not is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him his meaning shall not be that all condemned within the visible Church perish because the man coming to the nick of a gracious receiving of Christ and having done all requisite to a professor until it come to the breaking forth of the new birth he there only fails for many sins and degrees of failing against that Covenant however it be called go before that by reason whereof men are said not to believe in the Son of God and upon which account they remain under wrath and are condemned for non-believing he who will not hear of the Physitian though he never come within reach of personal communing with him dies of his disease deservedly because he contemns the only Physitian who can cure him as well as he who sees the Physitians face hears his words and beats back on his face the saving cup which would cure his disease Yet withal here we would beware of Mr. Baxter's order of setting repentance and works of new obedience before justification which is indeed a new covenant of works meriting the sprinkling of Christs blood and washing in justification and this blood payeth them back again for by the merit of Christs blood good works do justifie and save 2. How clean walkers in new obedience must men be wâ—ashen e're they come neer the fountain redeemed before they be redeemed 3. So must men sweet and repent of their life before they be justified compleatly but of half or quarter remission and justification the Scripture is silent it crushes joy peace hope liberty spiritual for if men earn not out their repentance they may and do lose their labour and reward before the third part of the day be ended nor does the man accept Christ as Lord in a naked intention to serve him for so saving faith includes in its nature an intention of new obedience to God but a man cannot be said to have his reward of pardon because he hath wrought his work or reformed his life only in his intention or because he intends to work his work Scripture should here speak 4. Why doth not Mr. Baxter say right down tacienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam The Lord hath made the covenant of grace with all mankind Americans Brasilians with these of Chinah and it hath these two halfs 1. Do and live the life of grace and of faith 2. Do and live the life of glory So that the Gospel and pardon and the life of grace are promised to the Americans so they trade well with nature or a general grace of Christ crucified they know not whom and they never heard of shew such a covenant made in Scripture and made with the Brasilians It 's true the Scripture saith repent for remission and repent that your sins may be blotted out Acts 2. 37 38. Acts 3. 19. But truth suffers here
peace between God and you ye are all of you old and young bought with a price ransomed by the blood of God ye are not your own Christ hath taken away your sins and does now begin upon a new score God hath exprest the greatest love imaginable he hath redeemed you his enemies this in the Old or New Testament is never told them for then the Ministers of the Gospel should find all the Pagans a Church bought with the blood of Christ and the reality of a Church should be in all societies of the earth But such glad news are preached to the chosen in the visible Church only never to Brasilians Paul preaches at Athens Acts 17. Creation not one word of Redemption as also Aristotle Plato and others should beget over again to God Creator all their disciples whom they find rude and ignorant and infuse by moral swasion and teaching a new life of learning and all rude and ignorant men before they be taught Methaphysick Mathematicks should be dead in ignorance enemies in their heart to knowledge and Philosophy and the same ground should make Ministers suppose there were no learning and teaching of the Father in drawing of men to Christ by that Omnipotency which raised Christ from the dead and created the world John 6. 44 45. Ephes 1. 17 18. 19. 2 Cor. 4. 4. as true real Fathers of the new-birth by only the letter of the Gospel as Aristotle and Plato are fathers to beget Philosophy in men Now for any remedying Gospel-promise that is made to Brasilians to purchase by way of merit we shall believe it when Mr. Baxter shall prove that to Indians and Brasilians who lived and dyed without the sound of the least notice or rumour of the Gospel Christ hath purchased and merited grace to believe the Gospel 2. That Christ by the blood of his Crosse hath made peace betwixt God and the Brasilians who so lived and dyed without the Gospel that Christ hath satisfied upon the Crosse for their sins against the Law and born their fins in his own body on the tree that Brasilians being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes Brasilians are healed 1 Pet. 2. 24. that Christ suffered for Brasilians to bring them to God 1 Pet. 3. 18. that Christ bought Brasilians from their vain conversation with his blood 1 Pet. 1. 18. that Christ gave himself for wild Indians that he might redeem them from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. And who so tell us of a general dubious and conditional intention in the Father giving his Son to death and of the Son's giving himself to death for all these poor savages to whom he would never send the air of a rumour that he so loved them and of a special intention going along with the free decree of Election to glory that so many only should live unto righteousnesse be redeemed from all iniquity are holden to prove two such redemptions two such loves of Christ dying two such intentions and decrees two such providences one special redemption one special greatest love one special intention one fatherly providence indeed toward the elect we find John 10. 10 11. John 3. 16. John 11. 51 52. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Rev. 1. 5 6. Rev. 5. 9 10. 1 Pet. 2. 24. 1 Pet. 3. 18. 1 Pet. 1. 18. Tit. 1. 14. Gal. 1. 4. John 15. 13. Rom. 8. 32 33. Isa 53. 4 5 6. Rev. 14. 4. all which places make the redeemed to be loved with the greatest love sanctified bought from their vain conversation redeemed from among men made Kings and Priests to God delivered from this present evil world redeemed from all iniquity c. we leave the other General dubious love intention and reconciliation of Brasilians to our Adversaries to be made out by Scripture And Q. What is the grace of Christ's meritorious blood if it be shed for all and every one if it put the nature and free will of all and every one in a better condition and if his merit restore not the image of God into a more firm and excellent condition then we had in the first Adam and what healing of nature and the restoring of the image of God is made to the savages who eat men as we do beevs kill their aged fathers use wives promiscuously and never heard one word of the Gospel CHAP. XIIII The Law discovereth the disease but heals it not 2. How nature begins and the spirit acts 3. We not God in withdrawing his grace must be the culpable cause of non conversion 4. Some truth we must first physically hear and consider before we believe KNowledge or the commanding Law strengthens the wicked desire by forbidding it A strong stream runs with more strength that a dike of stone and clay stands in its way I know not saith Augustine epist contra Hilarium 89 c. de spir lit 4. how that which is desired becomes more pleasant because it is forbidden Nescio quo enim modo hoc ipsum quod concupiscitur fit jucundius dum vetatur the letter of the Law or bare knowledge meets with unrenewed nature and then a severe master and a froward servant make no work betwixt them the Law came in that sin might abound Rom. 5. Jubet Lex magis quam juvat docet morbum esse non sanat imo ab eo quod non sanatur augetur ut attentius sollicitius gratiae medicina quaeratur The Law commands but it helps not it teacheth the disease to be there but heals it not There are two extremities here we love on the one hand the barbarous opus operatum the literal deed done in praying the charm of the external work is by hand if God sell not the blessing yet I have blown words of praying up to Heaven and told down the price It 's heavenly wisedom to go about praying and other means not as acts of trading for our nighest ends but as acts of serving and glorifying of God though no thing should redound to us but we use praying and hearing as a man doth his horse or his ship all for self-use and self-ends Ah can the man charm the blessing of the Holy Ghost with bare words when scarce the literal attention goes along and here our Idolatrry saith I buy and God will not sell I plow and God binds up the clouds the Lord pays not the reward of a rich harvest to the merit of plowing on the other hand let ordinances reading praying and hearing of the Bible sleep until the spirit blow and we forget it is not the Spirit of the Father which works without the word and the testimonies the tools of the Father is this God's Spirit or a delusion plow not sow not until it be first harvest blow not at the fire until it first flame boldly pray not until the Spirit breath strongly but first give words I pray you to be a
cannot a soul filled with hellish and divelish sorrow such as was the case of wakened Judas receive influences of the Spirit to see a pierced Lord and to be in bitterness as one is for his only son Zech. 12. 10. but must despair and receive influences of hell for hardness and impenitency Obj. But we see the Church lament 3. very unbelievingly quarrelling with God v. 8. When I shout and cry he shutteth out my prayer 10. He was unto me as a Bear lying in wait and as a Lion in secret places And v. 18. I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Yet verse 24. The Lord is my portion saith my soul therefore will I hope in him then doth not unbelief and sorrow of sad and half despairing so incapacitate and deaden the soul to receive influences of believing Answ There is a far other consideration of a soul under prevailing corruption that is either yet not converted and of a converted man under a strong prevailing temptation when two contrary champions the flesh and the spirit are standing in battel array in the fields each one enemy attending the motions of another as in the former consideration there is a great difference betwixt green timber dry withered fewel or betwixt dry fire-wood fewel though dry yet soaked some days in water in this ease influences of the spirit from heaven influences of the flesh from hell do not so quickly exchange lodgings and go and come to and from divers subjects neither an unrenewed man nor a David under prevailing lust are such fitly disposed fields for showres of influences as in a moment they can cast off deadness and put on a spiritual disposition to receive influences of grace though there be an active celerity on the Spirits part for he can go and come quickly and this is to be seen in a soul under spiritual exercise even now there is a sad complaining I said in my haste I am â—ast out from before thy face and yet with the same breath nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplication Then under sense of being cast out of Gods favour there are also influences to pray and to pray in faith and when the Christian fainting saith My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord Lam. 3. 18. she also saith The Lord is my portion saith my soul v. 24. It 's clear then that fainting and feeling are neer to other and so influences for the one and for the other are neer to other the quickness and celerity of influences is evident in the suddain ups and downs of the soul as the shining of the Sun in March and the showring of the clouds are so neer to other he comes in his shinings as a fire-flaught in the midst of our sad louring and dumpish deadness and when the Lord pleaseth his visits are speedy and swift CHAP. III. How the soul is under plenty of means and dispositions heavenly and yet under scarcity of influences 2. Praying and love to the word according to the will of precept all along through Psalm 119. 3. Delighting in the word reading and meditating thereon fetch heavenly influences 4. Hence 18. obstructions of influences 1. Hardness and blindness 2. Vnbelief 3. Deadness 4. Security 5. Irreligious prophaness and Atheism 6. Vnconstancy 7. Deceitfulness 8. Pride 9. Worldly-mindedness 10. Fiery preposterous zeal 11. Vncleanness 12. Malice and bitterness 13. Worldly sorrow 14. False joy 15. Self-love 16. Wilful ignorance of the Gospel and hatred of Christ 17. Impatient fretting against providences the contraries of all which help to fetch heavenly influences Lasty the Lords manner of contributing his influences makes us not passive lumps and blocks the word shews that God lays a holy necessity on our will so that we are most willing and free agents in spiritual actings 18. Vain and wanton thoughts obstruct influences THe heart as including will and mind and affections is the publick Inne and lodging that receives all influences 1. There is a sweet proportion betwixt the influences of the spirit and the new heart Quest How is it then that the soul is under sweet dispositions and plenty of means and yet wants influences Answ This is to shew the absolute freedom of grace as Cant. 1. the Spouse is in a sweet condition Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better then wine 3. Because of the savour of thy good oyntments thy name is oyntment poured out therefore do the virgins love thee 4. The King brought me into his chambers yet she stands in need of a pull draw me v. 7. Tell thou me O thou whom my soul loves where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon-day Here is a soul in love longing to be embraced and kissed smelling Christs precious oyntments taken in to the Kings chamber yet the prayer to be drawn and to be instructed where to find him teacheth that some are at the well-head and yet thirsty and in Christs banqueting house and yet the praying of such to be drawn speaks want of influences and hunger for more except Christ intimately apply his influences to will and to do Cant. 2. 4. He brought me into his banqueting house his banner over me was love 6. His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me What is here wanting is not this paradise come down from heaven but the prayer v. 5. Stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love is a strong evidence that the Spouse even in Christs arms and in his house of wine where are all the refreshments of heaven is not sick only but fallen into a deep swoon if Christ hold not up the head and stay the soul with quickning influences what then could you make of heaven it self and of Christs sweetest embracements if he teach not how to improve the fulness of this free love in sweetest actings of heavenly duties When John is in heaven and sees heavens glory yet if the present actings of the spirit go not betwixt him and Angel-worship he roves influences must then make Christ to be Christ and heaven to be heaven and the Spirit must open and let out upon the withered soul streams of the well of life otherwise there is the banqueting house of wine and there is yet the hungry and swooning Spouse there is heaven and fulness of glory and there is yet miscarrying John grace must make it self our grace and he will have us to know to whom we owe the thanks both of Christ and of the outletting and emanations of free grace and of the well of life and of the flowings and streamings of that fountain and so the created habit of grace is not to be rested on but Christ acting in his free grace is all in all 2. The Lord gives influences according to his will of pleasure but we must stir and pray and act according to
but influences to keep from sin go along with that word so hidden in the heart that look as the heavens clouds sun fail not to joyn their influences to the seed of vine-trees roses plants of fig-trees and nature goes along with birds to cherish and to warm eggs for the bringing forth of young birds so in some infallible way by promise God concurs with the so hidden word to produce faith and love and all acts of obedience how much then does it concern these that move the question what shall we doe to fetch the wind and to purchase influences of grace to read hear consider love praise believe and chose the Word as a treasure 8. Overcomed temptations have influences sutable to graces victory Psal 119. 23. Princes also did sit and speak against me but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes v. 83 69 161 141. 9. Felt deliverances from the oppression of man v. 134. sense of the loveliness and excellency of God want not influences v. 68 132 133. 3 As the earth and the things that grow thereon receive the Sun's influences so doth the heart qualified with the habit of grace lodge heavenly influences and the well-tuned string of the Harp and Viol closes sweetly with the smiting of the pulse or hand of the Musician but the mistuned string stricken on makes discord and receives no concord of musick the savoury and gracious heart welcomes the breathings of God when the Spirit can no more act by his influences on a gracelesse spirit then a Musician can play harmoniously on a broken Harp or a mistuned Reed Hence these evils of the heart obstruct the influences of grace 1. Hardness and blindness 2. Vnbelief 3. Deadnesse 4. Security 5. Irreligious prophaneness and Atheisme 6. Vnconstancy 7. Deceitfulnesse 8. Pride 9. Worldly-mindednesse 10. Fiery zeal 11. Vncleanenesse 12. Malice and hatred 13. Worldly sorrow 14. False joy 15. Self-love 16. Wilfull ignorance of the Gospel hatred of Christ 17. Impatient fretting against Providence 18. Disordered thoughts and ignorance of God in Christ 1. Blindness and hardening of the heart and Pharaoh's not setting his heart Exod. 7. 23. on the miracle of turning the water of the river to blood so that the fish in the river dyed and the river stank hinders influences of obedience to let the people go Exod. 8. 1 2 3. Matth. 13. 15. Their eyes have they closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them as if they were afraid for the saving influences of the saving grace of conversion so men keep strong forts and imaginations against God besieging them by the preached Gospel 2 Cor. 10. 5. 6. and will not have their thoughts led captives to the obedience of Christ Whereas softnesse and tendernesse in Josiah 2 Kings 22. 19 20. brings stooping and self-humiliation and receives influences for repenting weeping and renting the cloths before God for what impressions of grace can the stone or rock and such is the heart hardened Ezech. 36. 26. or the Adamant receive Zech. 7. 12 temptations signs and wonders do nothing at all to bring down the heart Deut. 29. 3. keep thy heart in some softnesse and tendernesse and then shall it receive smitings from God for the very renting of the lap of the garment of an enemy the not despising of the cause of a servant whom the master may easily bear down or the not warming of the loyns of the fatherlesse with the fleece of the flock Job 31. 13 20. in David and in Job have abundant influences of grace going along with them and this seems an innocent negative and when such small fins so they appear to men leave an impression of remorse the heart is like melted wax that easily admits a figure and the print of an image of a man or a Lion Influences are some way due to softness of heart as grace to the lowly rain and dew to meadows in the valley Jam. 4. 6. 1 Pet. 5. 5. Psal 25. 9. 2. As the light of faith leads every thought captive to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 5 6. so doth unbelief dull the heart The news of Christ risen again are idle tales to the Apostles Luke 24. 11. Unbelievers are men who cannot be perswaded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gospel leaves as little impression on the heart as a ship on the Sea or an Eagle in the Air where the light of faith leaves not a spiritual capacity for receiving the impressions of the Spirit of grace and where unbelief reigns and since unbelief hath conjoyned softnesse and a fainting at the face of great affliction so as the heart is moved as the trees of the wood Isa 7. 2. there is not a seat in it under such softness to receive influences for the noble and high actings of the courage of faith in withstanding Kings and Princes Priests Prophets and People in subduing of Kingdoms and in the believers godly hardening of himself as a wall of brasse and a fenced City against all these yea against death and the grave Jer. 1. 18. Cant. 8. 6 7. Ezech. 3. 8 9. Rom. 8. 35. This is carefully to be observed that the influence of actual grace finds either in the habit of grace or frames and makes in the heart a gracious aptnesse and capacity to receive actual influences sutable to the duties in hand either of believing patient and joyful suffering for the Lord and such like As the Lord in his common influences with the Sun rising and going down the wind blowing the Sea ebbing and flowing straineth not nor forceth the nature of second causes nor draws them as passive lumps to act against the particular inclination of nature but carrieth along the natural active principles of the Sun Wind Sea and such like natural causes so neither doth the Spirit of grace by his actual influences carry along the rational powers of knowing believing willing as meer dead and passive blocks as the Carpenter hewing lifteth an Axe and shaketh and moveth the Saw but the Lord makes the sutable active concurrences of sinlesse nature and of grace stirring in its influences to joyn together and accord friendly connaturally and without jarring or violence done to nature and so carries on the supernatural and gracious actings of obedience And therefore as this point with all getting get wisedom Prov. 4. 5 6. Prov. 2. Incline the ear apply the heart cry lift up the voice for knowledge dig for wisedom as for silver and hid treasures and then look for influences v. 9. then shalt thou understand by way of practise which cannot want influences of grace righteousness and judgement and equity yea every good path And there is much in the walking by faith the light of faith being the star-light and the day-light ordering the motion and beside which no objective light can doe it
inclines and weighs the soul to spiritual acting and the Spirit must attend the stirring of saving light so inclining the heart with gracious influences 3. When we give way to deadnesse and act literally and carry on the bulk of praying hearing as willing to get the body of the work over and wrestle not for life and power in praying and blow not upon the dead heart to stir up the habit of grace the Spirit withdraws and acts not on deadnesse as the Sun moves not vital spirits in a dead carrion or dead corps for there are none in it the naked name of living professours in the Church of Sardis when it was but a name is plagued with deadness and so with withdrawing of influences Revel 3. 1. the Cocks clapping with the wings adds strength to the crowing should we if the iron be blunt and the edge not whet add and put too more strength Eccles 10. 10. and seek life by stirring as sea-men by sayling about seek and fetch wind we should increase warmnesse of life and hoised up sails should receive wind for humble sense of coldnesse and deadnesse and missing of life is a good sign when it brings forth Psal 119. the prayer so frequent Quicken me Quicken me prayers used as Matins and Vespers and wandering of heart and whorish gadding of the thoughts in private praying brings on deadnesse and as a Smith blows not the bellows on cold iron and cold fewel where there is no sparkle of kindling of fire at all neither doth the North or the South-wind in heavenly influences blow upon such hearts Would ye have God to be more serious in his influences when you are formal and not serious at all in the work 4. Security obstructs actings of grace the Spouse sleeps and Cant. 5. 2. the Spirit withdraws influences to open to the beloved the Disciples sleep when Matth. 26. Christ exhorts them to watch and pray and can the Spirit breath upon a lying and sleeping sluggard there is godly fear on the heart but Peter and the rest of the Disciples in their shameful flight and stumbling at the sufferings of Christ after their fearlesse and fleshly undertaking saying that they should rather die then forsake him prove that the spirits withdrawing by which they fell in that sin goes along with security we would watch and fear always and the contrary of fearing alwayes is hardening of the heart Prov. 28. 14. which infers a withdrawing of that enlightning and softening grace Where there is rising at midnight to praise Psal 119. 62. a preventing of the dawning of the morning to cry to God Psal 119. 147. there must be a continued showr of outlettings of influences of grace for the lengthening out of hoping all the day long as when Christ cannot sleep but watches and prays when others sleep the life of this must hold forth a sea of flowing in continued actings of grace in him 5. A prophane heart void of God and filled with Atheisme also obstructs the flowings of the Spirit so the wicked Psal 14. 4. call not upon the Lord there is not an owning of a God to be worshipped Psal 14. 4. and the thing that goes along with that is oppression they eat up my people as they eat bread and what gracious influences can there be there especially when the Lord complains They are corrupt they have done abominable works 3. They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy c. and the root is Atheisme The fool hath said in his heart There is not a God God breathes not in his influences on such as deny there is a God till he first blow away the influences of Satan who would darken and blot out the ingraven notions of a Godhead because Satan cannot be an Atheist himself he would make the world speculative Atheists but because he cannot do this he fills the world with practical Atheists it can neither be blotted out of the heart of damned men nor divels but a God and Judge there is but men live without God as if there were not a God and these two species of Atheism are dreadful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atheists without God creator 1. When men laugh at a God-head that created all and live by Policy as State-Atheists Or 2. By Reason as moral Atheists or by Nature as many Philosophers and some Physitians such are dead and dry rocks never rained on by influences seldome while the skaddings of the river and streams of brimstone waken them are they out of a sleep for influences on the creature in all its operations especially in these of grace are most proper actings of holy providence he who denies there is such a thing in the world as fire or a Sun must deny that there is heat and light in the world But the other sort of Atheists without Christ God Immanuel are more inexcusable as a Gospel-Atheist is farther from influences of grace then a Pagan-Atheist as is clear from Matth. 10. 15. Matth. 11. 22 23 24. Matth. 12. 41 42. because farther from salvation how few have been converted who were first temporary hypocrites and long despisers of the Gospel 2. who have been long moral naturalists and 3. long bitter and virulent enemies to the Gospel and the godly though otherways grave and civil Be much in believing that God is Heb. 11. that leads the way to the noble actings of faith in Abel v. 4. Enoch v. 5. Noah v. 7. Abraham v. 8. c. and the faith that God is and rules and is good to Israel and that he punisheth wicked men though he make them rich leads the Prophet to the faith of God his gracious providence in guiding the godly by his counsel in holding them by the right hand Psam 73. 1 2 3 c. 23 24 25. 6. The inconstancy of affections obstruct influences even now Martha believed and then Lord he stinketh for he hath lain four days John 11. 27 39. The ebbing and flowing of the Sea the waxing of the Moon the full Moon the declining of it the article of the change have all divers and contrary influences on our bodies on diseases on living dying birth and health and so may we judge of influences from the suddain changes of the heart As 1. It may be taken away Hos 4. 11. stollen away 2 Sam. 15. 6. and as moveables can be stollen away and hid though lands legally by fraud may be stollen away yet physically they cannot be hid so the love and bensil of the heart may and can be stollen away and when hearts are from under the possession of the right owner the Lord our God they are not under his influences when they are not in his world and Kingdom of grace but in Satans power hearts benighted are from under the influence of the Sun and therefore cannot receive the rays and beams of the Sun in the night 2. Except the Lord pursue even renewed hearts they are not the same
to close with influences now as they were the other hour 3. The various words used by the Scripture As 1. Bewitching of the hearts and charming the Galatians from the sound doctrine of Justification through faith only Gal. 3. 1. to Justification by works prove that influences that take yesterday will not take to day for they were hot in running and then cold in sitting down Gal. 5. 7. Deut. 19. 6. while the avenger of blood his heart is hot The Galatians were willing to pluck out their eyes of late for Paul and now their affection to him being soured they look on him as an enemy for he telleth them the necessary and lovely truth Gal. 4. 15 16. 2. The heart is a thing that may be bowed 2 Sam. 19. 14. the metaphor is known to the learned it may be allured and inticed with fair words 1 Cor. 2. 4. yea the whole soul may be bought and sold as Merchants goods with fair words 2 Pet. 2. 3. False teachers through covetousness shall with faigned well decked word as exquisitely dressed as hair make merchandise of you 3. The heart may be turned as streams of a river drawn thorow this part of the land or this part Prov. 21. 1. and from nilling to willing as the Lord thinks fit according to Gods will of precept is often the falling of the Church of Ephesus sinfully from their first spiritual love Revel 2. 4. and the turning from good to evil 4. The heart may be ingaged Jer. 30. 21. glued and made to stick to such an object Psalm 119. 31. given up and delivered Eccles 2. 1 2 3. Eccles 1. 13. 2 Chron. 20. 3. set and fixed to such a way Judg. 13. 3. Judg. 5. 9. touched and moved 1 Sam. 10. 26. stirred to such a work Ezech. 1. 1. and then as the Sun in the Spring and Summer coming neer the earth makes more excellent effects on it then the Sun farther off in Winter when the Lord comes neer he works otherways on the heart then he doth in his absence all which with divers other words say it 's not easie to lie under and receive the influences of God the gardens and meddows stir not out of their place the vine-trees the corn and grass in mountains valleys vineyards flee not away from the falling of wind and dew and the aspect and dartings of heat and beams from Sun and Heavens But ah unstable hearts which withdraw from under the actings of the Spirit and weary of prayer hearing whereas the establishing of the heart with savoury dispositions and delighting in the word fetch home influences as Psalm 119. cleareth 7. The desperate wickedness and deceitfulness of the heart Jer. 17. 9. puts the Prophet to speak to God v. 13. O Lord the hope of Israel all that forsake thee shall be ashamed Influences then must be withdrawn from deceitful workers and if the heart be deceitful above all things then in some regard it 's deceiful above Satan as being a heart-deceiving and murdering of our own souls beyond the privity of Satan we boyling in the secret furnace of the heart many naughty thoughts that are unknown to Satan and who knows the hypocrisie of the heart and what way God plagues hypocrisie with farther hypocrisie and by all sins heart-deceitfulness is within it self a rooting of it self now this deceitfulness being so contrary to sincere and singleness of heart must be uncapable of influences for the upright and sincere heart and truth in the inward parts Psalm 51. 6. is desired and loved Psal 11. 7. Psal 146. 8. exceedingly by the Lord as most like himself Psalm 11. 7. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright And so as every thing loveth its own the hen warms and cherishes her chickens and every bird the young ones so must the Lord follow with heavenly and quickning influences sincerity of heart when he particularly saith to them Psalm 32. 11. Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart The Lord must then follow his own planting for the loving of the Lord Jesus in sincerity and the girdle of truth about the loins is a part of the armour of God Ephes 6. 14. with pruning hedging digging and showres from heaven whereas upon the heart unrenewed and still deceitful there shall fall no rain nor is a deceitful heart more capable of lively influences then thick gross misty air can admit of wind or then a torch steeped in mire and dirt is in capacity to receive light and flaming and suppose which yet is not possible God should send saving influences on an unrenewed and deceitful heart remaining such yet could not such a poysoned stem bud and bring forth acts of saving grace as the thorn tree in the fattest and choisest soil neer the Sun under influences of a warm heaven benign clouds a sweet moderate aire could never bring forth delicious wine grapes or pomegranates prevaricators hypocrites and all double-minded halters betwixt the Lord and Baal shall rot in their soil and be as the heath in the wilderness and receive nothing of the actings of God the Lord is far from their reins Jer. 12. 2. God is not in all their thoughts Psalm 10. 4. Salvation is far from the wicked and what are then the influences of God on them for they seek not thy statutes Psal 119. 155. but David v. 156. Quicken thou me according to thy judgements 8. Pride hindereth not a little the out-goings of the Spirit the proud soul is the fallow ground the unbroken and unplowed earth and what can be hoped of wheat or a barley harvest from rain and dew and influences of Sun air and clouds where the plough never broke the earth and the Husbandman did sow nothing but as for the humble and humbled broken and meekned man influences are his by the promise of God O that is a great and an unchangable thing Psal 25. 9. The meek will he guide in judgement and the meek will he teach his way None can be guided and taught practically to walk in the way of God but these who are acted by influences of grace Christ thanks the Father because he reveals the mysteries of the Kingdom to babes or young children Matth. 11. 25. and James 4. 6. But he giveth more grace God resisteth the proud and giveth grace and so influences of grace and more influences of grace to the humble 1 Pet. 5. 5. And see 2. As the Lord and his servant nature hath provided a providence more active and careful in parents for suck and milk to infants and for food to weaned children who are as passive as stones in providing for themselves so doth the Lord rain in a more abundant providence influences of grace on the meekned and broken spirit Low valleys lying toward the Sun kindly receive dew and rain mountains not so 3. If the bones be of new broken and hot and
119. 139. and Christ John 2. 17. 11. Fleshly uncleanness put them of Sodom to mock and persecute Lot a preacher of righteousness Gen. 19. 9. and their not hearing of Lot prove their influences were not of God The holy Ghost clears to us that David 2 Sam. 11. all along was carried by no saving influences for there we find 1. His idleness 2. His sluggishness in sleeping in day light when the Ark and people of God were in the fields 3. His adultery 4. His sending for Vriah to cover the matter 5. His causing Vriah to be drunk 6. His bloody letter to Joab to kill Vriah 7. His bloodshed 8. His Atheistical talking the state of the war 9. Whereas David mourned for the death of Saul and Abner his enemies and his not looking with godly trembling on workes of divine justice in the Army he passeth this over as a chance of war in all which the spirit that led him in composing heavenly Prayers and Psalms was now far away What actings of the Spirit can swine and dogs receive from God 2 Pet. 2. 12. 22. O but a clean hearth-stone and a chaste holy and clean house would be kept for the kindlings and flamings of the holy Ghost See Tit. 2. 3 4. 1 Thess 4. 2 3 4. 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. let the holy Ghost his temple that he dwells in be neat pure undefiled for influences are the breathings of the Spirit and the holy Spirit breaths not on bruite beasts and on slaves to the lust of the flesh 12. Malice and hatred called man-slaughter 1 Joh. 3. 15. must bemist the soul and darken and benight or over-night both conscience mind will and affections and so as stones or rocks or the sea sands can receive no influences from Sun and clouds to bring forth wheat and barley neither can the heart stuffed with malice for the very incapacity of the soil is the cause why such ground cannot close with such impressions and influences of God 2 Sam. 23. 1. The Spirit of the Lord spake by me there must be quickning influences his word was in my tongue The man that ruleth in the fear of the Lord shall be as the light of the morning when the Sun riseth a morning without a cloud as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain The just Prince and Ruler full of love and mercy to the people of God and full of righteousness is like a morning without a cloud that hath clear influences of a shining Sun the Lord quickning him with light of love mercy and righteousness to the people whom he feeds that he is as the earth receiving from the influence of the Sun clouds and rain warmness that casteth up tender grass and corn But v. 6. The sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands 7. But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear and they shall be utterly burnt with fire in the same place Then malice reigns so in wicked men that if a man touch them and keep society with them in duties of love they bleed the hands of these that touch them as briars and thorns doe except the hands be fenced with iron and steel He notes the Nations to whom David and Joshua offered peace but they blood the people of God and prepare war as is clear in the Ammonites to whom David sent a message of love and they came against him with the sword and war now they are such thorns as are for the fire saith David and that they may be burnt they require no influences of Sun and rain Prov. 4. 17. They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence Acts of hatred are their meat and drink and what influences of the spirit can their way which is the way of darkness v. 19. require Rom. 3. 15. Their feet are swift to shed blood for v. 17. the way of peace they have not known and there is no fear of God before their eyes Be meek and gentle as Christ Isa 42. 2 3. Isa 53. 7. a lamb dumb before the shearer Luke 23. 34. 2 Cor. 10. 1. and that holy meek one lay neer the Sun and the influences of the Spirit Isa 11. 2. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him the Spirit of wisedom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord Joh. 3. 34. for God giveth not the Spirit by measure to him neither acteth the Holy Ghost in his sweet breathings on bloody and cruel hearts of persecutors 13. Wordly sorrow counterworketh sound repentance and godly carefulnesse holy defences holy anger against our selves godly fear vehement desire zeal for God revenge such by which we are not to be satisfied with our selves who have committed such wickednesse now all these require influences of the Spirit 2 Cor. 7 9 10 11. 2. The Law-Spirit of bondage being hellish fear Rom. 8. 15. and must be another spirit then the witnessing spirit and the influences of the one different from the other as good wheat that comes of the plowing and sowing of the husband-man and wild corn that comes from no plowing or husbandry but such wild oats grow of their own accord in mountains and in the house-tops Rom. 8. 15 16 17. 3. The hypocritical sorrow of Esau weeping for the blessing and yet saying in his heart he would kill his brother could have no influences of the Spirit Genes 27. 38 41. for heart-prophanness which was in Esau Genes 25. 32. Heb. 12. 16 17. cannot consist with saving influences and Malach. 2. 13. the covering of the Altar with tears crying and weeping to God was bastard sorrow for they married the daughter of a strange God and compare David's godly sorrow Psal 51. wherein he seeks the new heart and the free Spirit to be restored to him there were there strong influences of the Spirit with his weeping and mourning for Absolom when he was killed and the difference is clear this latter seems to be but a wordly sorrow such as mourn excessively for their dead friends 1 Thes 4. 13. banish the Spirit of faith and hope which cheareth the heart with the comfort of the last resurrection Much sorrow spent on it's a case of conscience to be remembred the death of a father brother husband wife children loss of goods argues a carnal mind and blunteth the stirrings of the Spirit consider Martha her grief for her dead brother and her unbelief in tying the not dying of her brother to Christ's presence bodily as man John 11. 21. and her sorrow well near drowns her faith ver 39 40. 14. False joy in corn wine and oyl in full barns Psalm 4. 7. Luke 12. 19. in the pleasant things of a present world must not a little oppose the Spirit in his influences for where that joy is
unrenewed and full and extream at only that which is a worldly good thing the spirit is yet carnal and no saving influences can be there in the regenerate the affections are like two contrary rivers when the one river is full at the flowing in of the sea the river in the contrary coast is low and ebb so joy sorrow love desire c. as the Spirit prevails Rom. 7. as the flesh prevails in its motion so are they up in their fleshly exorbitancies and low in their motions and flowings toward God v. 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24. but the joy spiritual at the coming and receiving of the Gospel Acts 8. 5 6 7 8. the joy of believing Rom. 15. 13. the joy of the hope of glory Rom. 5. 2. Matth. 5. 12. the Joy in the midest of heaviness if need be for a season which is unspeakeable and full of glory 1. Pet. 1. 6 7 8. the joy in suffering under reproaches and the spoyling of our goods Heb. 10. 33 34. Acts 5. 41. 1 Thes 3. 9. the Joyingin Christian walking Phil. 4. 4. the joy of the holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. and the like are all fruits of the spirit and have necessarily conjoyned with them heavenly influences to receive the Gospel Acts 8. to beleive with peace of mind Rom. 15. 13. to hope for glory Rom. 5. 2. Matth. 5. 12. to be comforted under heaviness even to love the holy afflicter 1 Pet. 1. 5 8. to all patience in suffering Heb. 10. 33 34. Acts 5. 41. to walke chearfully in our Christian course Phil. 4. 4 5. all which must be wanting in the false and bastard joy of the world and the like may be said of desire the more men waste their desires in worldly objects the less of the Spirit have they as these two are excellently conjoyned Psalm 73. 24. Thou shalt guide me by thy counsels and afterward receive me to glory Influences in perseverance in the way of God by Gods counselling and leading are here insinuated and beside that a spiritual desire v. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and in the Earth there is none I desire beside thee 15. Self-love is a note of Apostates in the last days 2 Tim. 3. 2. and of men in the state of nature where self-love prevails above the love of God for natural men make themselves the god of gods and the god of their false gods Exod. 20. 4. Judg. 2. 19. Psalm 81. 8. Amos 5. 26. Hos 13. 2. there be men who make themselves their last end it 's contrary to all true holiness and sanctification and so to all acts and influences of the Spirit for it is the proper work of the Spirit to make us holy and he bears the name of the holy Ghost and of the spirit of sanctification upon that reason and therefore where self is the mans god what room is left to holiness and to the influences of grace and where the love of God is spread abroad in the heart by the holy Ghost which is given Rom. 5. 5. and hath a seat in the heart John 21. 15. John 14. 15. Deut. 10. 12. Deut. 6. 4 5 6. Deut. 30. 6. as the habitual fear of God hath also what doubt is there but the Lord shall joyn actual influences of grace to his owne spiritual habits which should put us to self-denial and to be less wedded to the love of our selves and more to love the Lords Word Law and Testimonies Psalm 119. 11 47 72 97 127 128 c. to love Jesus Christ his cause and Gospel more then our own life Matth. 16. 25 26. then houses brethren sisters father mother wife children or lands Matth. 19. 29. Matth. 10. 37. Luke 14. 26. and where this habit of love prevailing in the heart is the Lord denies not actual influences to his own sincere followers and strength of grace to seal his truth with their blood Rev. 12. 10 11. Heb. 11. 33 34 35. Heb. 10. 32 33 34. and when self-confidence and self-love and carnal fear of losing life present prevails by reason of a temptation as is clear in Peter and the Disciples who deny and forsake Christ contrary to their undertaking Matth. 26. 31 32 33 34 35 v. 56 69 70 71 c. the Lord justly withdraws the influences of his spirit 16. The ignorance of the Gospel and the loathing of Christ renders all Pagans who hear the rumour of Christ but receive him not and all Reprobates within the visible Church in a worse condition then rocks and desarts are in for Sun clouds and rain send influences in them but the malignity and driness and coldness of the soil is the cause why they do not spring and blossome as the gardens and meddows but though the Lord send common helps to such Pagans and unbelievers yet it is justice that the Spirit in his influences should be a stranger to such as live strangers to the Son of God for the Son and Spirit go not contrary ways to their operations Carnal professors who study only a form of godliness and aim not at the power of godliness and do but bear the bare letters and outward bulk of baptism and the sound of the word preached and hate Christ and persecute the godly that are chosen by him out of the world come under the name of the world who cannot receive the Spirit nor his influences John 14. 17. and have a spirit of their own the spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2. 12. this spirit is their tutor and guide and such as are out of Christ are led by the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience Ephes 2. 2. and are taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. 26. Now can these two spirits the Spirit of God and the Divel lodge in one and the same dwelling and exercise their several operation on the same soul No. 17. The sad freatings and wrestlings at the providence of God incapacitates men for influences of grace thrice Psalm 78. the people are said to tempt the Lord and especially in asking meat for their lust v. 18. can he provide flesh for his people v. 20. and the Spirit of the Lord so tempted le ts not out his sweet and saving influences upon such as wrestle with his holy dispensations was there more of the Spirit letten out to Israel for murmuring at the red sea or less yea less Exod. 15. for after that they murmured again at Morat Exod. 14. and in the wilderness of Sin Exod. 16. 1. yea forty years in the wilderness Psal 95. 9 10. They tempted God and did erre in heart and that with their first murmuring in Egypt was a provoking cause of Gods withdrawing his Spirit all these forty years is called v. 8. The day of temptation for to tempt God is a great wickedness he who welcomes all dispensations with godly submission and can bow to his Lords will
obey the Scripture is clear and though we cannot give a natural and philosophick reason no matter 18. If we should distinguish betwixt thoughts and conquering and victorious thoughts 2. Betwixt fixed and wanton carelesly feeling thoughts 3. Betwixt guarded and well watched hearts and masterless hearts we should know that we hinder and obstruct influences though Soveraignty dispense gracious influences by sinful thoughts the thoughts being the wings of the soul can influences have a seat on thoughts marred by us surely no more then a bird can flie with broken wings and the God of nature doth not joyn his influences with causes impossible to act he concurs not with the bird to flie when the wings are broken nor the running of a dead horse though one should ride on a carrion and use spur and rod. But when the thoughts are seasoned with the heavenly disposition of a renewed heart as the buds and blossoms of the vine-tree are in a neerest way to receive influences from the God of nature to become excellent wine-berries and the most refined earth neer to be turned into gold and to receive influences for that effect so a heart gratified with heavenly dispositions must be a subject for heavenly thoughts and if there be a holy heart heavenly meditations come out in the night Psal 63. 6 7. Psalm 139. 17. Phil. 3. 19 20. 2. The Lord contempereth the actings of the spirit to the subject being a moral agent and all our gracious actings run through the channel of a spiritual judgement as running the race in Christ came from known and well considered joy set before him Heb. 12. 1. Moses chose Saints suffering more then Court-honour for heaven or the recompense of reward looked with another face and representation on the understanding then a poor time Court of clay did the superexcellent knowledge of Jesus Christ is so praised by Paul as his heavenly understanding looks on it as his all yea his only all and his all things beside are stated to his mind as loss and dung So to Abraham's mind a tent that shepheards sleep in is judged good enough and the world a bottomless lodging because there stands in the eye of his mind a rightly considered City that hath a foundation whose maker and builder is God Heb. 11. 18. And the cause of Christs bearing patiently the cross was his sanctified judgement of injuries and spitting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he under-judged and in his mind under-prised shame and reproach Heb. 12. 2. as a-very shaddow of a shaddow and as nothing and the glory of his Father in a redeemed and ransomed people looked braid and fair and great on his understanding Know and consider well 1. God an infinite fair transcendent God and the silly poor nothing and kindless nature 2. Judge rightly of time and how nothing yesterday and the last year is and weigh in your understanding vast high and braid and deep and long eternity if you have ballance with scales that can bear eternity 3. Understand well obedience faith the weight of the love of Christ never quenched with many floods and sin hatred of Christ and the horror thereof 4. Take a right view of heaven how it lies in length and bredth and a right impression of the fire that is never quenched and the habitual knowledge of the Lords name wants not influences for trusting in God Psalm 9. 10. knowledge where to find God in Christ hath actings of the Spirit to live and dwell with him to hold him Cant. 1. 7. Cant. 3. 1 2 3 4. Joh. 4. 10. to pray to come to him Joh. 6. 45. a soâ—l in darkness and the gross ignorance of God is not capable of influences of grace as the centre and bowels of the earth and deep pits receive no Sun-light We can draw on sinful dispositions yea we created these dry clouds that are above our withered hearts by making our inordinate affections Stewards and Caterers to lay in provision for our flesh Rom. 13. 14. 2. We can ask leave at our flesh to take a little sleep and excuse it Prov. 6. 10. Yet a little flumber 3. Under drowsiness and security we can refuse to open and let Christ in Cant. 5. 3. and that brings on sad withdrawings of the actings of the Spirit v. 6. 4. Violence done to sweet dispositions when they give warning of our debt may draw to a wronging of the holy Ghost who is dreadfully jealous if we counter-work the actings and breathings of the spirit and react against the out-lettings and flowings of the anointing and of the well within springing up to eternal life he puts in his hand by the hole of the door the Spouse is convinced that it is Christ the beloveds voice and his knock and his very words and no other yet he is not yielded unto but resisted 2. We keep not the oyl clean that it may shine more clearly in the lamp inky blackness defaces the beauty of the white rose and the lilly the dustiness and filth of lusts dimness darkens the precious stone that it loseth lustre and colour when a judicial darkness even on a believer it covereth the habit of grace and darkens the spiritual strain the sin of the spirit is out of measure sinful the spirit judicially sleeping sees and hears less in the Prophet Jonah then carnal reason in the Heathen Mariners for Jonah sleeps the Heathen men do wake and fear when wrath from Heaven blows on their ship the lesser habit of grace that is young and green in the repenting theif doth more in adhering to Christ because actual breathing of the spirit is stronger and more vigorous then the more rooted and experienced habit of grace in the Apostles when it is now overwhelmed with the base fear of suffering for he confesses him to be a King on the Cross the Disciples fleeing forsake him and the Lord preaches that we are more debtors to the Spirit of Christ then to the habit of grace praying praising believing hoping loving joying as acts of kin to the Spirit gladden the Spirit what should we then do to fetch the wind grieve not the Spirit but keep the fountain pure and clean from the muddiness of lusts for in the light of the Spirit you see your own spots 1 Joh. 3. 3. He that hath this hope in him purifies himself as he also is pure 2. Yield not to indispositions complain of them to God and pray them away as Psalm 61. 2. Psalm 31. 22. Psalm 102. 3 4 5. Lam. 1. 2 3 4 5 c. 22 23. Obj. But it is easie so to say Be strong in the Lord I am at huge distance from the Lord Answ 1. The Lord speaks to believers as to moral agents the actings of faith is in us both moral and also physical or real though moral acting in some sense be real and not imaginary as the fowler with sweet songs works in a manner morally or by way of
of the Lord the husband act in a whorish spouse who grieves that spirit See Psalm 106. 39. Can refreshings come from the fountain of living waters to such as Jer. 2. 13. forsake the fountain and hew them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no waters or can the Spirit dwell and act in that soul which abhors God and the spirit of God and his operations no man will lodge in an Inne in which he knows they lie in wait for his life Isa 63. 10. They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit 2. There are who say Job 21. 14. to God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways and who Prov. 1. 29. hate knowledge Now the spirit of the Lord is a spirit of knowledge and needs none to counsel him and teach him knowledge Isa 40. 13 40. And to one is given by the same spirit saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 12. 8. the word of wisedom to another a word of knowledge by the same spirit and he is Ephes 1. 17. the spirit of wisedom and revelation who gives the knowledge of Christ the Spirit then will not be a teacher to such as hate the master teacher and all his instructions Wil a man be an instructer to a Disciple or Apprentice who to his knowledge hates and flies from him and abhors him who abhors mocks and does despite to the Spirit and will the Spirits going forth be as the pleasant morning in such a man sure the Spirit teacheth not convinceth not guideth not in all truth any John 14. 26. John 16. 7 13. but such only as Christ sendeth him unto John 14. 16 17. 16. 7. I will send him unto you v. 13. He shall guide you He shall shew you things to come John 15. 26. And therefore he comes to this Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee What is such a man how is he known by another There be three notes by which he is known v. 23. 1. Nevertheless though I be a beast and a tempted fool doubting of a providence I am continually with thee O blessed company Then follow two observable actings and influences of the Spirit 1. The confirming and upholding influence the supernatural manutenentia upholding of the Spirit Thou wilt hold me fast by my right hand 2. There is the guiding John 16. 13. and leading of the Spirit Psal 143. 10. Psal 73. 14. Thou shalt guide me by thy counsel So every element acts and moves most connaturally in its own place the river moves most connaturally within its own channel it 's violent in its motion when it runs above and without its own banks the wind moves naturally in the air but most violently and unkindly in the bowels of the earth for there it causes earthquakes and swallows up houses and Cities The Spirit of the Lord acts and breaths sweetly in a believer but the spirit that moves in a possessed man is proven to be the spirit of the Divel not of God because he moves most connaturally and casteth the possessed one who is his house in fire and water Mark 9. he is not a gracious guest who sets on fire his own lodging Isa 26. 9. With my soul I have desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me early will I seek thee and that is a work of the spirit to learn righteousness when the Lords judgements are on the earth v. 12. Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works in us The Spirit refers all acting on earth to God for the good of his Church and there follow many expressions of faith and liveliness to the end of the Chapter v. 13 14. the Lords that ruled over us beside thee are dead the people v. 16. prayed to thee in trouble v. 19. Our dead men buried in Babylon shall live and be delivered Could we desire and thirst after God the Spirit should act more abundantly in us 3. From our joy or delight and our sadness and sorrow arise impediments of spiritual influences As 1. Carnal sensual delights and the Spirit cannot be together Jude v. 19. sensual not having the spirit The more men are drowned in sensual lusts the less of the Spirit they have or nothing at all The Apostle Phil 3. makes an opposition betwixt such whose God is their belly and mind earthly things corn wine and oyl and mind not spiritual things and so benow nothing of the Spirit and himself and sound believers who have their conversation in heaven which must speak much spiritual mindedness and mighty influences of the Spirit by which the mind the apprehensions and thoughts the affections hope faith love delight haunt heaven and eternity much The Scripture calls some swine 2 Pet. 2. 22. some other dogs Rev. 22. 15. Does the holy Spirit dwell and breath in and through a prophane and unclean man such as are swine and dogs It 's strange that the preaching of the Gospel and Satan lodge together in Judas Have not I chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil John 6. 7. Matth. 10. 1. And when he had called the twelve disciples he gave them power against unclean Spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness v. 7. Goe and preach 2. Influences of grace spiritual joy persevering to the end can no more find good soil to grow in a rocky stony proud and graceless heart then corn can grow on stones and rocks Matth. 13. 20 21. though there be a receiving of the word with joy and delight that joy is but false mettal The only cure of this is if we would have our spiritual desires as touching grace and glory and other things annexed to this is to listen to that Psalm 37. 4. Delight thy self also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart What was spoken of love-sickness after Christ the same is true of soul-delighting in Christ that in any precious actings of the Spirit goes along with both Psalm 63. 7. The soules following hard after God Psalm 63. is a fruit of the other v. 6. When I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night-watches then v. 5. My soul shall be satisfied with marrow and fatness my soul shall praise thee with joyful lips Psal 51. 11. Take not thy spirit of holiness from me Why what special fruit of that spirit doth he seek v. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and firmly sustain me with thy free spirit a willing a princely ruling spirit Joy hath a strong impulsion and hath vehement expressions as clapping of the hands Psalm 47. 1. Shouting Psal 63. 7. In the shadow of thy wings I rejoyced Heb. I shouted And Matth. 5. 12. Rejoyce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rejoyce and leap for joy as in a dance It 's excellent to strong impulsions of the Spirit to
joyn strong and vehement actings of ours High-bended and fervent acts of obedience come not but from strong habits of grace but here I speak of mighty stirrings of influences here we would beware of straining affectation of shouting and expression of delight some bring more out then is within when literal crying and shouting does exceed the inward impulsion of the Spirit it 's dreadful to lye of the Holy Ghost and of his impulsions but to the point Our actings would be proportioned to the Spirits stirring Mighty rivers come from a huge arm of the Sea some streams flowing from little small fountaines run scarce the fourth part of a mile 1 Cor. 15. 10. Strong labouring câ—mes from strong and abundant grace I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me A strong influence of the Spirit calls for a strong virtual consent especially when the Spirits impulsion of joy is strong Cant. 1. 12. While the King sitteth at his table and feasts the Spouse with quickening influences and satisfies her soul as with marrow and fatness my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof The spikenard is here the precious oyl or oyntment of spikenard John 12. 1 2 3. that is the smell of her actings of joy delight love were strong and exceeding savoury as his table was a Kings table and fat and the actings of his spirit strong then followes a suitable strong expression of delight v. 13. A bundle of myrrhe is my beloved unto me he shall lie or lodge all night betwixt my breasts And Cant. 2. 4. the King brought me into his house of wine that is into the chamber of the most spiritual and soul-delighting consolations of the Gospel that rejoyce and cheer the heart as excellent wine doth one that is fainting as Psal 104. 15. Prov. 31. 6 7. compared with 2 Cor. 1. 6. 2 Thess 2. 18 19. And the Spouse joynes to this a most vehement disposition of soul-sickness of love for Christ v. 5. Stay me with flagons and comfort me with apples for I am sick of love As also godly sorrow for sinne 2 Cor. 7. 10 11 15. a special work of the Spirit and princely and kingly gift of his Spirit who was raised from the dead to act this sorrow in us Acts 5. 31. as also swoooning and dying at the absence and withdrawing of Christ the beloved Cant. 5. 6. is a fruit of the Spirit and to sleep and eat and drink and rejoyce when the holy Spirit is saâ—ned and when he withdraws his actings is a dismal and sad token though there may some influence of corruption be in sorrowing because the Spirits actings are suspended as they are our comforts or apples to delight children and not as duties that we owe for Christs love to us and conscience of his command which saith Phil. 4. 4. Rejoyce alwayes in the Lord c. and here we would beware of worldly sorrow that causeth death Sorrow and heart-breaking because of the breaking of created comforts as if God were not the soules portion and the Saints all in all should be eschewed this sorrow blunts and deadens the soul from drinking in influences of glory as far Luke 9. v. 32. also Law-sadness dumpish servile down-casting because it deadens and kills as the Law doth must be eschewed indeed sadness that Evangelically mortifies and deadens to created spiritual comforts may quicken the believer to a more vigorous delighting in Christ himself who is more then comfort Psal 119. My soul droppeth away for heaviness and that puts fire in the soul to pray Strengthen thou me according to thy word It appears to be spiritual sorrow that breaks out in prayer Matth. 26. 38 39. Psal 18. 4 5 6. Psal 61. 2. Psal 102. 4. There are in the fourth Class two affections hope and audacity or fool-hardiness which would be taken heed unto Now with hope which looks to good to come and hardly attained we must take in faith one of the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. Sometimes one affection in its carnality will counterwork another Luke 24. 41. The disciples believe not for joy and wondering But the special ground is unbelief the wide desire of unbelief thinks God cannot be so abundantly good as to restore to them Christ from the dead and the carnal reasoning of wondring contradicts a possibility of the resurrection over-acting of one affection to wit of joy when it 's literal counter-works the actings of the Spirit in the faith of the promises Hence must Christ soften the heart with swasory actings before the man believe and consider what Christ does morally Luke 24. He opens the Scriptures to the two disciples Luke 24. 27. He rebukes their unbelief v. 25. and as to his own disciples he sent them word with eye-witnesses who saw him that he was risen again but their words seem idle tales to them Luke 24. 11. And he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart Mark 16. 14. 3. He appeared and spake to them 4. He made their senses witnesses by causing them see and touch his hands and feet 5. He did eat with them which was an action of life 6. He wrought a miracle of bringing multitudes of fish to their net but all is to little purpose until he take a real and effectual way by the working of the Spirit Luke 24. 45. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures Then the opening of the Scriptures though in the mouth of Christ avail little to faith except the Spirit of Christ open another lock even the heart This is one of the first works of the Spirit to convincethe conscience of unbelief John 16. 8 9. and when the Spirit hath taken that castle and brought the soul to be sensible of unbelief he can easily take in the rest of the works frequent casting to of new oyl to the lamp keeps it shining and new fewel causes the fire to flame Frequent repeated acts of believing bring the disciples to get the grace to doe greater works then Christ did because Christ went to the Father John 14. 14. Believe influences of grace and have influences of grace abundantly furnished to you ask the Spirit in faith and the Father is as willing to give the Spirit as a Father is to give bread to his hungry child so here faith makes a fair wind Luke 11. 9 10 11 12 13. It is not so in nature the husbandmans natural faith that it shall be a sweet warm fruitful Summer makes not a fruitful Summer The Sea-mans natural faith believing fair winds and no storms at all makes it not to be so for often faith here is but fancy but faith acting dayly upon the precious promises of the word brings strong gales and summer-influences of heart warmness of the Spirit and in a manner creates new blowings of the North and South-wind fainting under the breathings and knocking 's of
the Spirit of Christ makes him withdraw Cant. 5. 2 6. Here unbelief binds up the wind and breathings of the spirit as it doth the mighty actings of Christ Mat. 13. An unbeliever as touching his state is a Pagan and doth the holy spirit dwell in an Heathen Lively hope for there is a dead and withered hope is no less a fruit of the spirit then faith This is a specifick difference between an unconverted Pagan who wants the spirit and a convert who hath the spirit The former is one who has no hope and so is without God and without Christ and without the Spirit of God in the world and so is not capable of influences Ephes 2. 12 13 14. and one whom the Lord according to his abundant mercy hath begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 1 Pet. 1. 3. For in such a man there be many actings of the Spirit As Faith 2. Perseverance therein v. 4 5. Rejoycing in God v. 6. Patient believing in the furnace v. 7. Love v. 8. all which are fruits of the spirit Gal. 5. 22. And hope under deadness spreads abroad the sailes and hoises them up to receive and gather in the wind it brings home influences of grace to lie at the tide and wait until the wind blow sweetly and fairly from the Spirits earth Hope is the onwaiter expecting showrs of influences in the conscionable using of the means The hope of him who purifies not himself 1 John 3. 3. shall wither hope to the end still flourishing growes on the right tree and speaks a communion with the spirit which hath conjoyned with it the obedience of children the not fashioning our selves to former lusts and holiness like unto God who hath called us 1 Pet. 1. 13 14 15 16. otherwise the hope shall be a broken tree and hath nothing to doe with the Spirit Many say they hope well and it 's good to hope well and live upon thoughts that they shall be saved yet are profane and godless walking after their lusts this is sinful boldness and the spirit dwells in none such There is a boldness of faith in access to God and in approaching to the throne of grace Rom. 5. 1 2 3 4. Heb. 4. 16. by which Davids soul makes her boast in the Lord Psalm 34. 2. It hath these undoubted graces of the spirit faith praying glorying in tribulation patience the love of God spread abroad in the heart by the holy Ghost which is given to us Rom. 5. 1 2 3 4 5. 5. The fifth Class of impediments come from these two 1. Despair and anger What workings and saving impulsions in the spirit can be in Cain Saul and Judas is not conceivable Hope that makes not ashamed Rom. 5. as is said dwells sweetly with the spirit 2. The violence of the passion of anger overclouds the soul so that Elisha is not capable to receive prophetical influences and to prophesie he was so incensed against wicked Jehoram 2 Kings 3. But when the minâ—â—rel played the hand of the Lord came upon him and he prophesied Theodoret saith with the sweetness of the harmony of the Psalms the mind of Elisha was calmed and composed from the storm of anger The sound of musick saith Cajetan makes an inward contracting and gathering together of the actings of the mind and so an elevating of the heart to God Here it is as when blood runs out at mouth or nose the cutting of a vein in the arm makes a diversion of the blood and causes it run in its right channel The sweetness of musick drawes the soul to a bended attention to consider the harmony that it may the more greedily drink in delectation Peter Martyr on the place saith As David by singing a spiritual song chased away the evil spirit from Saul so would Elisha waken up the good spirit by heavenly Psalmes as the sounding of a Trumpet hath influences upon the mind of souldiers to valorous and heroick acts in warre Now musick spiritual the matter being Psalmes to God and it 's like Elisha called for some of the Levites who could sing psalmes on the harp as they were used in publick worship can withdraw the soul in anger from acts of revenge to acts of spiritual attentionâ— musick 2. That being done the soul is setled and the blood for the Physical definition of anger is a kindling of the blood about the heart the moral description of it being a desire of revenge to hold off a contrary and to preserve nature and when the blood is setled and fallen from the heart the organs of prophecying are in a little better frame then when the soul and heart is boyling like a pot in heat and flaming of anger 3. By bending of the mind to a spiritual object the sweet musick in praising of God the some of anger is removed and a spiritual disposition to praise which is nearer by nature to spiritual prophetical influences then the flamings of sinful carnal anger as aer insitus the air that is within in the ear fits the organs to receive the sound and lumen insitum fitteth the eye to receive the species and images of colours and so to see by the contrary the foming of anger within hinders the incoming of prophetical influences as a contrary holds out a contrary Intus apparens prohibet extraneum So the Apostles wills us to put away anger if we would pray rightly 1 Tim. 2. 1 8. I will therefore that men pray every where lifting up holy hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without wrath and doubting or contending Anger drowns the soul and renders it like green wet timber unfit to receive the flaming and soul-warming influences of the spirit of adoption 2. A meek quiet spirit like that of Christs is the fittest work-house of heavenly influences Christ the most lovely and meek of men and an infallible copy thereof Mat. 11. 29. Isa 53. 6. Isa 40. 11. Isa 42. 2 3. had the most frequent influences of the in-dwelling Godhead as Isa 61. 1 2 Psalm 45. 7. John 3. 34. 2. Moses was the meekest man on the earth and much of the actings of the spirit were on his soul and he had the most near manifestations of God The Lord spake to him mouth to mouth even apparently and not in dark speeches he beheld the similitude of the Lord Numb 12. 8. Deut. 34. 10. Exod. 34. 5 6. Q. What Prophet was fourty dayes in the mount with the Lord and eat not but Moses Exod. 33. 11. There arose not a Prophet like unto Moses c. 3. John the disciple of love called the beloved disciple gets the name of divine and he saw more glory and more of the visions of God then Peter who is the pretended Vicar of Christ and Head of the Catholick Church so doe Papists dream of an Head-ship For John saw Christ in his glory Revel 1. which made him fall dead at his
feet He saw a throne set in heaven and one sate on the throne and he that sate was to look upon like a Jasper and a Sardine-stone and there was a rainbow round about the throne and four and twenty seats round about the throne and four and twenty Elders who cast down their crowns before him that sate upon the throne c. 4. and the armies in heaven in earth and under the earth praising him He saw in the visions of God the seven Angels which poured the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth He saw Babylons fall the vision of the last Judgment the Bride the Lambs wife adorned with the glory of God He saw the new Jerusalem the golden structure of it the street of gold the twelve ports the wall the foundation of precious stones the river of water of life the tree of life Moses never saw such glory 3. Hence see we that there may be a sinful incapacity on our part and that the pure in spirit see God Mat. 5. and that grace keeps the soul like a calm sea without storm and wind and that if we would be near God we would keep the heart clean and pure We are to beware of grudging and act these three duties 1. Trust in the Lord. 2. Delight in the Lord. 3. Hope patiently for him Psalm 37. 1 2 3 4. There may be an earthquake in the zeal of a meekned Elias there was no godly men on earth left but himself as his angry zeal said to him and the Lord knew 7000. besides him The Lords way of appearing to Elias 1 Kin. 19. taught him some other thing for the Lord was neither in the strong wind that brake in pieces mountaines and rocks nor in the earthquake nor in the fire but in the still small voice v. 11 12. The Spirit was not of God which would call for fire from heaven in the disciples to burn villages and men women and children quick because they refuse lodging to Christ and his disciples for therefore meekly saith Christ and gravely Luke 9. 55. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of 56. For the Son of man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them You know not that these flamings of the fleshes wild-fire came not from heaven for they smell not of the meek Son of man nor savour they of his saving message No doubt the disciples thought their sparks were kindled at a fire from heaven but that fire came not from God seldom does the Lords Spirit dwell and act in his saving influences in an angry fiery spirit grace meekens hell and hellish passions in the renewed Saints There are no passions in the glorified and perfectly meekned ones who stand before the throne but such as are pure and unmixed fire for the everlasting praises of God Hence showres of influences eternally rain on them night and day without ceasing Isa 6. 2 3 4 Rev. 4. 8. The 6th impediment of heavenly influences is from fear 2 Tim. 1. 7. We are to stir up the grace of God in us and his gifts not from a legal fear For God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power of love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1. 7. Then we take up the Spirit of law-bondage and law-fear of our own will that spirit of fear is not of Gods giving or choosing but it is of our choosing Rom. 8. Such as are led by the spirit of God are willing followers v. 15. For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but we have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father It 's like the devils are uncapable of influences of grace because of the horrour and slavish trembling fear that is upon their conscience they be ever under the law of works never under grace no not so much as in offer Matth. 8. 29. Jam. 2. 19. Faith and the spirit of adoption to pray to believe influences of grace is the remedy of this So are we to believe perseverance and that God shall give influences of grace to the end Psalm 23. We shall have waterings and the believers well shall never run dry Psal 104. 33. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live Psal 104. 33. Psal 146. 1. Psal 52. 8 9. Then he knew of a stock and a new furniture in heaven suppose his own well should go dry CHAP. V. Some properties of Influences of grace 1. That they are invincible and irresistible 2. Of free grace 3. Done by the Lord with a principality of causality 4. Immediately both by the immediation of vertue and of the Lords own presence Influences are considered 1. In the first moment of conversion 2. In perseverance 2. God seeks not our consent to our first conversion 3. We are maried to Christ before we consent to the mariage 4. How the Lord determines free-wil without offering violence to free wil. 5. Gods dominion is equally over free-wil and all natural causes 6. God acts in all both by the immediate influence of his power and also of his person 7. The Lord most particularly leads his own 8. What is the right missing of Influences 9. We are more our own by the Law and less our own by the Gospel 10. Christs care and the members care IT is easier here to know what is not to be said as touching the irresistibility and strength of gracious influences above our free-will then what to say But Influences are considered two wayes 1. Moral'y 2. Physically 1. As they are common to all who hear the word in the visible Church 2. As influences are peculiar to the elect in the business of conversion Assert 1. Common moral influences that goes along with the word preached may be resisted for the Jewes alwayes resisted the holy Ghost speaking in the Prophets Acts 7. 51 52. Zech. 7. 11. But they refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped the ear that they should not hear 12. Yea they made their hearts as an adamant-stone lest they should hear the Law and-the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his Spirit to the former Prophets Then the reprobate may and doe resist the immediately inspiring spirit in the men of God writing and speaking that word 1 Pet. 1. 20 21. and the assisting spirit also in the Pastors It 's dreadful in the lower actings of God in the word to despise the Spirit and to give him battel in his first approaches I called and ye refused Prov. 1. 24. Isa 65. 1 2 3. A contradicting of and a warring against the Spirit at the first face is much to be feared O tremble to speak against or to counter-work the Spirit at all 2. Influences proper to the Elect are so also to be looked on 1. In the first moment of conversion 2. In the work of perseverance In the first moment of conversion the sinner prevents not Christ none dead in sins and trespasses ever sent or
cause 1. His strong decree of Predestination must carry him to it 2. The same power of God that raised Christ from the dead acts here Elsewhere this is proved by famous D. Tuisse by Learned Amesius and many of our worthy Divines Obj. He who gives an insuperable influence to a free and contingent effect must render that effect necessary and not free 2. He who with mans free-will does insuperably produce the effect must doe violence to mans free-will Answ He who with mans free-will doth insuperably produce the effect by his alone and only physical and real motion and no other way as the Lord causeth the Sun to rise and goe down and the fire to give heat â—e doth or must doe violence to mans free-will True But now the Assumption is false for the Lord doth not so and by such an only physical motion insuperably produce the effect He who with mans free-will does insuperably produce the effect with both an insuperable physical and real motion and also with a moral perswasive and legal motion flowing from a command he must doe violence to mans free-will This is most untrue for the physical and moral influences of God though both be insuperable yet neither the one exceeds the other in degrees of necessity nor doe they both joyntly exceed the necessity which free-will will impose on itself If any object He who insuperably moves free-wil to act he doth infer violence to free-wil But God doth insuperably move free-will Therefore Answ The proposition is false 1. The Lord by casting an ague of love-sickness in the soul moves the free-wil of the Spouse and of the Martyrs to die for Christ rather then deny him because love of it self considered as separated from the Lords physical motions on the soul works upon the will more strongly and insuperably then many floods upon a fire and is hard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as hell or the place of the dead and marriage-love is cruel as the grave Cant. 8. 6. yet love infers no violence to the will 2. Commands the Sun and it riseth not Job 9. 7. and commandeth the Sun and it riseth Psalm 104. 19 22. And the Sun cannot but obey him for all creatures are his servants Psal 119. 91. and he moves all natural causes to act and so to act insuperably and yet he doth no violence to the natures of Sun fire and second causes in moving them He who contributes an insuperable influence with free-will if that influence be contemperated and sweetly accommodate to the nature and elective and rational way of working of free-wil acting out of judgment as our free-wil acts here He is not a cause inferring violence to free-will Should he indeed over-drive and over-act the free inclination contrary to the reason light and judgment of the mind and to the moral and free elective inclination of the will he should constrain and force free-will But this he does not but inclines the heart of David to the Lords testimonies sweetly strongly insuperably and this David prays for Psalm 119. Psalm 5. Psalm 19. and the Saints in many places and neither David nor the Saints in such prayers suit of God to destroy free-will also the Lords command and not the Lords influence is our rule of obedience But since we know not the Lords actual denying of his influence because we are willing he should deny it our sinful non-acting is no less our guiltiness then if we had the dominion and commandment of the Lords influences in our power A Master commands his servant to come to such a place where his Master useth to be yet neither is the Master obliged to be in the place hic nunc neither passes he any promise to be there if the servant come not to that place and willingly absent himself and willingly consent that the Master be not in the place the servants not coming is a manifest contravening of his Masters command So the Lord commanding me to pray though he concur not by his Spirit interceding to help me as he useth to doe my not praying is a contravening of his command who calls to me pray hic nunc under this trouble For 1. The Spirits helping or not helping me to pray is not my rule but the commandement is my rule 2. The Spirit is not obliged hic nunc 3. I pray not 4. My willing not praying is a sinful virtual consent to want the help of the Spirit Obj. Then should the Suns not moving but standing still in the firmament be a contravening of the command of God given in the Creation when he gave to the Sun a power to move Answ No ropes of Logick can draw the conclusion and antecedent together The Lords command to the Sun is not moral but natural 2. It 's not absolute The power of moving in the Sun is not to be acted but according to the soveraignty of God concurring or not concurring with the Sun so as the Sun is under onely to speak so a physical mandate of omnipotency not under an Ethical Moral Legal or obediential commandement to move or to shine under peril of sin and punishment as man is by the holy moral mandate and commandement of God Obj. A free cause hath more liberty not to act or to act then the Sunne hath to give light and the fire to give heat Therefore the Lord must have given to free-will a power of nilling and willing and must tie his influences to await and be ready concur or not concur as free-will shall think fit Answ The free will of Angels or men hath no more freedome and exemption from the dominion of providence then the Sun or the fire hath but all causes natural or free are equally under the Lords dominion 2. Free will hath no more a dominion over the Lords dominion and his influences that are given out or withdrawn according to this soveraign dominion then the Sun or the pismire Yea free-wil is under his dominion and also Prov. 21. 1. all the free actings of the creature as well as the necessary actings of Sun and fire as is proved Free-will hath indeed a more dominion over its own acts being a rational and free agent then the Sun over its acts 3. This is considerably comfortable that the Lord is chief Master of work Not ye but your Fathers Spirit speaketh in you Matth. 10. 19. Not I but the grace of God in me 1 Cor. 15. 10. I live not but Christ lives in me Gal. 2. 20. And yet Paul lives Paul labours but let God reign in us 4. The actings of God in all created effects especially his influences of grace are letten out immediately both immediatione virtutis immediatione suppositi by immeate concurring of his power and vertue and by the personal as it were concurrence of himself so the Lord works not in us to will and to doe by a Deputy or Lieutenant as a King rules and governs another Kingdome not by
himself in person but by a Deputy who represents his person and Princes being far distant the sea intervening transact matters of peace and warre with other Princes and States by their Ambassadors and Legates whom they send For God is said to be with Moses mouth not onely giving him eloquence and a tongue but the Lord spoke in him to Pharaoh Exod. 4. 15. I will be with thy mouth and with Aarons mouth and teach you what to doe Gen. 46. 4. Fear not Jacob to goe down to Egypt I will go down with thee into Egypt And I will surely bring thee up again my power shall be with thee to protect thee my wisedome to lead thee this had been much but he meets with Jacobs fear ah I goedown to Egypt God is not in that Idolatrous Land Fear not saith he I the Lord in person shall go with thee to bless thee to act in thee Jer. 1. 19. They shall fight against thee but they shall not prevail against thee Why For I am with thee to deliver thee Immediatione suppositi God was Jeremiah's immediate deliverer for v. 18. he had promised before to be with Jeremiah by the immediation of his power and grace For behold I have made thee this day a defenced city an iron pillar and brazen walls against the whole Land c. The Lord is present by the gracious mettal of zeal faith invincible courage he put in his Prophet So Christ Luke 24. 49. Behold I send the promise of my Father unto you What will he be away himself then No for he saith Matth. 28. 29. to the same disciples Loe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am with you alway even unto the end of the world 2. The Spirit acts in his own John 14. 17. He dwels with you and shall be in you v. 26. He shall teach you all things John 16. 13. He will guide you in all truth 3. Psal 73. 24. Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel He may doe that though absent by infusing into the Prophet the habit of wisedome nay he is nearer hand v. 2. Nevertheless I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by my right hand That is more then power 4. The action of leading that is ascribed to God is his only action Deut. 32. 12. So the Lord alone led Jacob and there was no strange God with him Now the eyes legs wisedome and will of the guide and leader are the travellers It 's true he led them by right hand of Moses but who then shall lead Moses for Moses needed a guide as they Isa 63. 12. Yea but he was leader in person himself He led them through the deep as an horse in the wilderness that they should not â—â—umble Now a horse is not led by giving him power to guide himself but the leader holds the bridle and directs the way to the horse So the Lords Christ's gentle driving of the ewes with lamb and Christ's carrying the lambs in his bosome Isa 40. 11. is an action immediate of Christ and his Spirit The warmness of life that comes from Christ's own bosom and from the Spirit spreading warm love abroad in the heart speaks the personal acting of the Son and Spirit So drawing John 6. 44. Cant. 1. 4. speaks the nearness of the Father of Christ and of Christ in his acting 5. This is to be considered There are two sorts of causes on in fieri another in facto esse The Creator in a manner is but half a cause the father begets a son the carpenter builds a ship the Mason raises up the frame of a goodly house But the son lives when the father is dead the ship sailes thousands of miles and the house stands hundreds of years when the carpenter and the mason are far from them for they are causes in fieri onely the making of houses and ships But there are some causes doe more The soul is a cause of the living man and when the soul is removed the man dies the face looking on the glass is the cause of the image both in its production and conservation remove the face and the image vanisheth away the Sunne is the cause of day-light which is transfused through the aire from the East to the West When the Sun goes down to another Horizon day-light vanisheth away because the Sun not by a deputy and by vertue communicated to another is the cause of the aires enlightning but is the cause of day-light both as touching the creating of it in fieri and as touching the preserving of it or in conservari facto esse So is God the cause of all creatures both as touching being and continuation being the Lord made all things and when they are made the house of heaven and earth should return to nothing if the Lord should withdraw his causative influence But in a special manner the Lord is every waâ— the cause of grace of our spiritual life and of all our actings of grace The new life should turn to nothing if Christ withdraw his gracious influence and it is that our poor little image and spiritual breaths are in his hand both touching production and conservation by his graces breathing Hence if the Angel of his presence goe with us his hand in our right hand Psal 73. 23. let us say 1. As Moses after the Lord had promised Exod. 33. 15. If thy presence goe not with me carry me not hence Ah who refuse a journey except God goe with him and be at his right hand and fixes the mind on this I will not goe to the pulpit as a Minister nor to the bench as a Judge nor to the field as a souldier except the Lord lead me and hold me by his right hand Doe ye misse influences of grace and the leading of the Spirit in a spiritual way of eating sleeping waking buying journeying It is good Obj. I cannot stir without God and his influences that I know Answ The sparrow and the raven the lyon and the wolf cannot stir without Gods influences of nature Ah that is poor and hungry Many have no more help of God to be lead in eating and drinking for God then the raven and the lyon Obj. I cannot pray nor hear without the influences of God Answ Ah you miss influences of God as concurring with a gift but ye miss not his gracious and saving influence to pray and hear in faith and feeling to concur with the Spirit of grace 2. Judas the traitor cannot preach and cast out devils without a common influence of a God with his gift and that is all your missing The renewed man misses that which in a manner is his due as a renewed man and that is the presence of the spirit of grace in his acting If a horse want a leg he shall soon miss it when he comes to running for four legs are due to him by nature but the horse in running misseth not the wings of an eagle for wings are not
comfortable necessity which lies on Christ to confer influences of grace Influences not fundamental not simply necessary Influences of grace for the habit of saving grace and influences for a gift How we may know when we act pray or hear c. from a gift and when we act from a grace Some pray from a meer gift when they mistakingly imagine they pray from the saving habit of grace the mistake is habitual in hypocrites only actual hic nunc in sound Believers Grace sanctifies the gift used in all due and spiritual circumstances but the gift can never fanctifie grace The same word but not the same influences act upon all within the visible Church We are not to rest upon the actings from a gift but watchfully to try when we act from a gift and when we act from a grace Calvin praelect in Jerem. 15. 18. distinguendum inter ipsam doctrinam quae pura fuit inter ipsos homines prophetas nunc autem dum in seipsum descendit propheta fatetur se agitari multis cogitationibus quae carnis infirmitatem redoleant nec careant omni vitio Differences betwixt the influences of grace and these of glory The habit of grace is a permanent disposition The habit of grace is given through the merit and grace of Christ From the habit of grace we perform suitable actings Vital actions flow from supernatural habits The differences of the habit of grace from other habits We are to follow holy resolutions with prayer 2. Godly trembling and 3. Faith The falshood of vowes A strong habit of grace produces easy and connatural and strong acts of grace Actions supernatural and influences suitable are some way due to the habit of grace Sometimes the habit of grace is qualified with heavenly dispositions We should pursue the dispositions of grace when they are added to the habit with spiritual actings We are to stir up the habit of grace thoughâ— deadned The Lord by insusing the habit of grace comes under some necessity to give suitable influences thereunto Divers necessities under which the Lord is to confer influences of grace Christ advocates for the elect yet not converted to bring them in to himself John 17. 6 9 10. The Spirits office puts him under a necessity of giving influences Vses from the Lords necessity of giving gracious influences First to frame doubts about predestination tâ— life and to miss eternall love before we miss inherent saving grace is Satans method Whether the habit of grace may cease in the regenerate from all its operations The habit of grace is not eternal The habit of grace ceaseth not How many acts we may bring out of the habit of grace There is a consenting to the temptation which is a wishing that our lust and Gods Law might both stand and a virtual wishing that the Law of God had never had being Eight evidences that in the regenerate the saving habit of grace never ceaseth from omitting some influences What dispositions spiritual are and how they differ from the habits of grace Get heavenly dispositions and influences follow connaturally Dispositions are not ever alike but various and changeable Evidences that dispositions goe and come Spiritual dispositions are different from the affections There are heaven'y dispositions in the as well as in the affections Bad spiritual dispositions creep on on the children of God There is some acting and life under much deadness in the â—egenerate Many sweet spiritual actings may be under indispositions No agreement betwixt these two champions the flesh and the Spirit It 's fit to go about duties under indispositions Less of sweet real influences and more of moral influences from the word makes obedience the more perfect We can tell the actings of the spirit when they are on and after they are over and gone Differences betwixt spiritual heart-burnings of the love of Christ and literal heat 1. Difference Feeling may be stronger after actings of the spirit are gone 〈◊〉 Difference Spiritual â—arning of heart leaves some impression◠〈◊〉 which literal heat 〈…〉 〈…〉 4. Difference There is sweet leading no violence spiritual in heart-burnings for Christ it s not so in the literaâ— heart 5. Difference The heavenly beat goes along with the Scriptures open and applied not so the literal heat Hence considerable differences betwixt motions of the Spirit and loose Ensiasms Literal heat is all upon the letter and forms not so as the spiritual heat David was Ps 119. and a believer may be under some straitning A true and a false missing What straitning is and whence it is Divers sorts of straitnings Rules to be free of straitning and to get enlargement of spirit Every heaviness is not weakness of faith How far we may undertake obedience upon supposal of grace How dispositions necessarily fetch influences We have not assurance to be delivered from sin hic nunc How we are to rely on God for influences What enlarging of heart David speaks of Psal 119. 32. We cannot engage in our strength or habitual grace to run in the ways of the Lord. Isa 63. 17. O Lord why hast thou made us to erre c. opened What use we are to make of our inability to run except God enlarge the heart How men naturally complain of sin original We do not so much as by strength of nature we may do and we add to our own lameness and unjustly complain of God for our sinful impotency The Spirit as the Spirit lays no obligation on us but to move in Scriptural duties No violence but from our selves hinders us to believe God loves using of external meanes pro tanto How farre we may act to fetch the wind and to get influences Branches of enlargedness of heart Mr. Leigh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 active eructare evomere tanquam ebrium Metaph. depromere producere Influences on Angels and the glorified ones Many straitned and dead ones reproved Prayer begets heavenly dispositions to pray and heavenâ—y dispositions to pray beget prayer and faith c. Holy acts beget holy acts and holy dispositions beget holy dispositions The Lord so frames his precepts and promises as our actings are suitably required to his influences The differences of the 1 Spiritual state 2 Of the temper 3 Of the condition What Davids present disposition was The doubling of words or sentences noteth certainty 2. Addition of assurance 3. Freeness of affection It 's fit to make an eike to the holiness of influences which the Lord offerâ— to us We may speak to God and profess in prayer the sincerity of our heart to God and the causes why It 's hard to guide well grace and glory so long as sin dwells in us The Lords giving of grace laies bands on him to give more grace and to add new influences to old What a heart the repenting thief and what an heart Hezekiah brought out before the Lord in his dying 2. Property of holy dispositions Dispositions spiritual are seeds of holy actings Zeal
letter which is common to Seneca and other humane Writers and the Prophets though even the style liveliness majesty and divinity that may be seen in the letter of the Scripture are eminently above the like in other Writers The Spirit immediately inspiring and the Spirit quickning in the Word are both the same Spirit that Christ promised to send John 16. of which Christ ver 14. He shall glorifie me he shall receive of mine a word most mysterious and shall shew it unto you and believers are afraid that their hearts receive some other quickning between the sound of the Word and the actings of the Lord upon their hearts which causeth them to pray for no quickning but according to the Word The like may 3. be said of the salvation of the Lord Psal 91. 16. I will shew him my salvation Isa 12. 2. For the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song he also is become my salvation Psal 119. 170. Let my supplication come before thee deliver me according to thy word for we are apt to seek strange and whorish influences the like whereof the Lord bestows not upon his people Psal 119. 132. Look thou upon me and be merciful unto me as thou uses to doe to those that love thy name Psal 106. 4. Remember me O Lord with the favour that thou bearest to thy people O visit me with thy salvation V. 5. That I may see the good of thy chosen that I may rejoyce in the gladness of thy Nation that I may glory with thine inheritance It s cold comfort we reap without the word its true his omnipotency was eternal before there was a Word or Promise made to us but now the Lord will have the Word or Promise to be the officina the work-house of his Spirit and of the quickning influences thereof 5. As also there is a salvation and escape out of prison by keys of our own making and by putting out the hand to iniquity Psal 125. and the heart is much for the bulk of a deliverance from Hell and for the body and lump of a mercy were it Heaven and Baalam's paradise or the end of the righteous whether it be purchased by the ransome of Christ's bloud or no and faith laying hold thereon or no. 6. And we love to have the remission and the righteousness of Christ in his bloud the separated from holiness and sanctification but the Scripture conjoyneth them 1 Cor. 1. 30. Gal. 1. 4. 1 Cor. 6. 11. Heb. 10. 10. Heb. 13. 12 13. 1 Pet. 2. 24. yea is a holy justification to speak so is the cleanly kindly sure absolution of the sinner for Christ loves noâ— and washes not in his bloud but such as he makes Kings and Priests unto God Rev. 1. 5. in so saying I honour good works more then Mr. Baxter doth who makes them as good as Christ's bloud even the price of pardon Ephes 1. 7. Col. 1. 14. Yea and 7. We could be satisfied with dumb and scrupulous influences and inspirations contrary unto and separated from the Word as Evah Gen. 3. 4 5 6. 1 Kings 13. 18. Matth. 4. 3 6 8 9. 8. What could the powerful influences of God Creator separated from Christ the treasure-house of love and mercy doe to us and if Omnipotency were separated from the promises of the Gospel could it save us in the Lord's way through the bloud of Christ for power in God cannot to speak so save men but by the Name of Jesus Christ the only saving Name under Heaven Acts 4. 12. nor can Omnipotency work a redemption now in this Gospel-dispensation but that which is by bloud Ephes 1. 7. Col. 1. 13. And that which is to declare the righteousness of God for the remission of sins Power acts by way of compleat satisfaction as the exceeding greatness of God's power to us-ward who believe is of the same size with the mighty power which raised Christ from the dead and set him on the right-hand of God in heavenly places Ephes 1. 14 20. The power of translating a sinner from Satans Kingdome to the Kingdom of the Son of his love works as acted as it were and set on work to act righteously to translate no man but the person for whom a ransome of bloud is given to justice as the Princes right power is only for the good of free and legal subjects Col. 1. 11 12 13. and that all power in Heaven and Earth to save Matth. 28. 18. John 17. 2. Matth. 11. 27. and that Kingly and Royal power to give repetance to Israel and forgiveness of sins Acts 5. 31. to forgive sins Matth. 9. 6. to raise and quicken the dead John 5. 26 28 29. is a power in a way purchased by the bloud of attonement Rom. 14. 9. For to this end Christ both dyed and rose that he might be Lord both of the dead and living And by the way it s a righteous power over all flesh and in Heaven and Earth though he died not for all flesh and for all the Angels in Heaven and all the men on Earth it were strange to say Christ died for the reprobate and not for their sins and final unbelief and rejecting of Christ to obtain a power to pardon some of their sins and not all and to give them repentance from some dead works and not from all dead works and to purge them from some but not from all their sins 3. It s most unjust to lay the blame of our sinful omissions upon holy Soveraignty because he withdraws influences For 1. That is to reproach God this is like the malecontentedness of Satan and of Hell for the damned complain that ever they were born and that they cannot be annihilated and that hils and mountains cover them not quick in soul and body yea they storm and rage because God gives them a being capable of eternal woe 2. The wakened consciences of men out of Christ often fall upon this recrimination the gnawing of conscience of Judas is I have sinned and of the young man Prov. 5. 12. How have I hated instruction and my heart dispised reproof Yet it is a more commendable complaining and more hopeful to complain of sinful neglect of means then of divine permissive providence of sin upon the Lord 's withdrawing of gracious influences but conscience in its kindly acting is the tormenting worm that eats self No Divel alledges this its true Satan bites at providence God hedges about a hypocrite Job and God commends him says he Christ torments us before the time Satan trembles and frets at the existence of God and that God is above him Joh 1. 9 10. Matth. 8. 29. Jam. 2. 19. and so all his words to Christ speak a barking at providence Matth. 4. its wrong that the Son of God should want bread it is an useless providence that the man Christ go down stairs for God saith he should save him though he throw himself down headlong Satan is a better
the spirit Psal 119. 32. I shall run the ways of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart Running speaks more of a spiritual capacity to receive drawing influences either actual or habitual and the enlarging notes straitning and that influences find us dead and bring vigourousness with them Though in this or that act of breathing there shine absolute liberty for who hired the Lord to moisten the withered tree yet there is place for that Question Whether the Lord hath not brought himself under a holy necessity of giving influences to which its answered in these 1. As there is a necessity of a Decree relating to means and end so is there a necessity of a promise as to the former The Lord created the first Vine-tree and the first Rose and they seeded and brought forth other Roses and Vine-trees the Lord first prevenes savingly the dead sinner by an infused habit as we shall hear puts the sinner under an obligation to duties and puts himself because of his intended end to save lost sinners as it were under an obligation of bestowing influences of grace though in another consideration they be given through soveraignty of grace because his holy decree carries him not to be wanting to his own seed nor to forsake the work of his hands Nature giving hunger and the holy and supreme Lord of nature giving appetite to eat and drink gives us also a power of concoction The Bird by an intended end lays one straw and one feather in the nest and so it must lay another and a third and a fourth for the Lord of nature intends a compleat house for the Eggs and the young birds and in like manner the Lord of grace hath a design of grace in his heart to bring many sons to glory And he must upon the like intention proceed to make the seed a tree but first he must make it a plant and ripen the grape and boyl it more with the heat of the Sun until he make it ripe for the wine-presse and the fat So must he add influences dayly of free grace for the perfecting of the work he hath begun in his holy decree as well as in the execution until he perfect it unto the day of the Lord Jesus But 2. There is need to distinguish betwixt a practise of free grace in the Lord some call it half a promise a promise of free grace And these must be cleared As to the former the Lord doth many things of meer grace relating to his free goodness 2. To his free decree of grace 3. To his holy order of working which he hath not promised to do As of his free goodness he creates the world he feeds the Ravens he preserves wicked Sodom from the sword and cursed Cham from being drowned when the whole world in godly Noah's time perished in the waters yet hath he engaged himself by promise to none of his creatures Angels or Men that he shall create the World that he shall feed the Ravens that he shall preserve Sodom 2. According to his free decree of grace he intends from eternity to save Jacob For he loved him before he had done good or evil and he ordains all the chosen to life eternal But because he decrees to bring Jacob and such to glory it follows not that he engaged by promise because of his eternal decree to bring Jacob to glory except we should say what ever God decrees to doe that also he promises to doe which were not good divinity 3. As to his order of working the Lord ordinarily from much labouring and painful sowing brings a rich harvest from careful watching he makes a safe City Yet there is not any promise in the word that from the simply careful use of means the desired end shall follow for the City is often well watched and yet surprized some sow much and reap little Psal 127. 1 2. Hag. 1. 6 9. Yet is there a practise of free grace in this order that the blind men cry Son of David have mercy on us yet they possiby intend only by the way side to beg and Christ of free grace gives them seeing eyes There is no promise of grace that Christ shall heal all blind men begging by the way who shall pray to the Son of David for seeing eyes or that the Lord Jesus who is as mighty now as ever shall send out influences to heal all the blind so crying for seeing eyes the Eunuch reads Acts 8. the Lord falls on him with influences of grace to reveal Christ in a saving manner to him not because he reads or because there is a promise made to save all who read the word Upon sinful ends the multitude Acts 2. come to hear the word their intention of hearing being mocking enemies was naught Yet by a practise of grace not by any promise of grace they are converted Now in this it may be said that the natural yea and faithless use of means hath some influence ex natura rei upon the effect not by promise yet by the decree of God and so by no merit because by no promise for another merit then what is founded upon free promise and not upon the worth and condignity of work and wages I hope never to acknowledge by his grace whom I desire to be my inward teacher and to me reading hearing use of means have a material influence as to the practise not to the promise of grace For according to the Philosophy I learned six is materially a number nearer of blood and kindred to eight then four is yet six and eight are numbers in spece and nature no less different then eight and four or then eight and two which are materially farther different then six and eight which are different only by two So the Embrio before life and the birth now quickened by life differ in nature and spece as living and not living differ Yet the Embrio the shaped organized body void of life is materially nearer to a living birth then the seed is to a living birth So I shall never teach that hearing reading literal considering of the weight of reasons in the Gospel from Heaven from the beauty and preciousness of Christ the excellency of free grace the happy condition of a communion with the Father and the Son Jesus Christ the sweetness of the love of Christ the torment of Hell though there be no acting of grace mixed therewith are unprofitable and hinder us from closing with Christ and that they confer not some influence materially of help in promoving towards Christ What these trusted in may doe as in another thing Hence though there be no promise no moral connection betwixt simple using of means and influences of Christ for saving grace and the incoming of the new creation into the soul yet comparatively a connection there is in this sense 1. As painful tilling sowing and labouring is nearer to a plentiful harvest then lazy sleeping in