into their mindes and in their hearts will I write them and I will be their God and they shall be my people 2 Cor. 3.2 3. In that you are manifest to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by us and 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 Jer. 31.33 34. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those daies saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord. You see that the Law must be first written in their hearts by the finger of God i. e. by the Spirit before they can know the things of God Ezek. 36.27 And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them the Spirit doth not only write upon our hearts the Law of God but all things which accompany salvation John 17. And when the Spirit comes he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you There is no truth which accompanieth salvation in the Word of God but the very same is written by the finger of God upon the hearts of beleevets That even as you see in a seal when you have put the seal upon the wax and taken it away again you shall see it stamp answering to stamp character to character print to print so it is in the hearts of the faithfull after their hearts are softned the Spirit of God writes the Law in their hearts So that there is a Law within answerable to the Law without i. e. an inward aptness and disposition whereby a man is inclined to keep the Law in all points which Law within us is called the Law of the minde Rom. 7. I see a Law in my members warring against the Law of my minde The teachings of the Spirit do not only put the things of God into our mindes but ingraff them as naturall dispositions in our hearts yea the Spirit of God ingravens them As when letters are engraved in marble so the teachings of the Spirit engraven the things of God upon our hearts I call them the writings the engravings of the things of God upon our hearts to distinguish the teachings of the Spirit from the motions impressions flashes illuminations of the pirit These are but light superficiall transient works they reach not to the bottom of the soul but they float at the top These impressions are suddenly begun and suddenly ended They are but as a flash of lightning which is no sooner seen but vanisheth They are but as the morning cloud and as the early dew which suddenly pass away as the winde presently scatters the clouds and the sunne takes away the dew so all these common works of the Spirit pass away and melt as the dew before the sunne The best seeming professors that want the teachings of the Spirit they are but as blazing comets which appear for a while and presently disappear Wandring starres Jude 13. to whom is reserved the blackness of darkenss for ever Heb. 6.5 Psal 34.8 They do but taste of the goodness of God and so away But the teachings of the Spirit make a Christian not only to taste but to see the goodness of God They are permanent upon the soul never to be blotted out again They are not as the flash of lightning but as the noon-day full of brightness and comfort They are riveted in the soul and imprinted in it 2. I say they are the Printings of the things of God upon the hearts of beleevers Beleevers only have the teachings of the Spirit And ye shall be all taught of God Joh. 6.45 i. e. all ye who are under the Covenant of grace and are interrested in Jesus Christ shall have the teachings of the Spirit Unbeleevers may have the motions the breathings the quicknings the flashes and the illuminations of the Spirit but not the teachings 3. I say these printings and writings of the things of God are done by a secret method unknown to us yet known to the Spirit What he 〈…〉 tell but how he writes we cannot tell what he prints we can tell but how he prints we cannot tell Dan. 5 5. As Belshazzar saw the hand when it wrot but could not tell what the hand did write so beleevers on the other side they see the writing of the Spirit but cannot see the hand that writes nor understand how the Spirit writes yet we are in a farre better condition than Belshazzar was For t is better to understand the writing than to know how the hand doth write what is printed than how the Spirit prints as it is farre better to know that we are elected that we are justified that we are renewed in the Spirit of our mindes considered in themselves than to know what Justification and Adoption is though we may know what Justification is and that we are justified by the Spirit 4. Only we see the effect of the Spirits teachings upon our hearts as a woman may know she is with childe because the infant moves in her belly so we may know what the Spirit hath been doing on our hearts by that knowledge zeal life heat motion activity and courage we find in our spirits towards Gods waies We hear the clock strike though we do not see the hand or the wheels that set it a going so we may see our hearts eccho back to the Spirit though we do not see the Spirit setting them on work Ezek. 1.20 As Ezekiels wheels wheresoever the Spirit went the wheels went for the spirits of the living creature was in the wheels So because the Spirit of God is in us wheresoever the Spirit carries us we are carried The Spirit moves and we are moved the Spirit praies when we pray the Spirit witnesseth when our spirit witnesseth the Spirit sets the wheels going and we go God is of a truth in every Saint though they cannot see him but in his operations We know that God is in us of a truth because we act for God and have the principle of spirituall life from him As we know the evil man hath been teaching of us when we see his evil tares and heresies and prophaneness to spring up so we may know the Spirit hath been teaching of us when we see the wheat to grow apace Otherwise The Spirits teachings is the Spirits creating a new light within us by a secret way unknown unto us at the first which light in our consciences enkindled by the Spirit doth in all things correspond with the light of the
confidence and boldness into the presence of God Before we have the Spirit we are in bondage 1. To sinne 2. To the beggarly and slavish rudiments and customs of the world To sinne and so the Spirit as it delivers us from the state of bondage 't is called a Spirit of holiness a Spirit of sanctification His servants we are whom we obey in the service of God there is perfect freedom but in the service of the devil there is the greatest slavery What more slavish than to serve a lust What greater bondage can there be than to have the devil our Master When the Spirit of God hath sanctified us and renewed us then we bear the Image of our heavenly Father according to that place in John He that is born of the flesh is flesh Joh. 3.6 and he that is born of the Spirit is spirit that is he that is born of the flesh bears the image of the flesh and he that is born of the Spirit the image of the Spirit As he that is born of corrupt flesh is corrupt so he that is born of the holy Spirit of God is holy Likewise we are delivered from the rudiments of the world and those superstitious waies wherein the world walketh How many are there kept in bondage to old customs in the worship of God to Ceremonies and serving of God after the tradition of their fathers that stand upon places and outward form more than the inward and more spirituall part of worship Some cavil at the Churches calling them Steeple-houses and the Pulpit a Tub and the servants of God Tub-preachers If the Church of God be a Steeple-house what place may we term their private meetings wherein the subject matter of their discourse is to broach and vent forth new fangled notions nothing materiall to the salvation of their souls and how they may vilifie and cast contempt upon the true worship of God and upon the servants of Jesus Christ Others put too much upon these places as if there were an inward holiness in them as if God would rather hear them there and answer them for the place sake rather than at another place Under the Gospel there is no place more holy than another for it is not the place that makes the duty holy as it was under the Law when the Altar sanctified the gift and not the gift the Altar but duties now put a dignity upon the place and not the place put a dignity upon the duties So that this place the Church while we are praying it may be called the house of prayer and while we are doing Gods work and God is manifesting himself unto us it may be called the house of God As Jacob called the place where he had his vision The house of God But yet you must observe this by the way that under the Gospel-dispensation there is not so much put upon places as there was under the Law God under the former dispensation did more immediatly limit his presence to one place though not alwaies for God is found of all them that diligently seek him but his visible presence is more reserved to the Temple and to his shining forth between the Cherubims over the Mercy-seat 2 Chron. 6.20 God is said to put his Name into the Temple and the Psasmist saith Psal 80.1 O thou that shinest forth between the Cherubims in allusion to Gods manifesting himself over the Mercy-seat Therefore it was Jeroboams sin which the Prophet Hosea reproves that he did not only set up Calves to be worshipped instead of the true God but that he set them up in Dan and Bethel keeping the people from the place of Gods worship where God had put his Name Yet under this dispensation the Church it may be called a holy place as under the old Law many things are called holy in that it is separated and set apart in a publick way in opposition to meeting houses for the pure worship of God and a joynt calling upon him in his own way The Spirit likewise puts us into a state of liberty A state of Sonship it is a state of liberty Rom. 8.11 Therefore we are said to be translated from the Kingdom of darkness into the glorious liberty of the children of God If children then heirs joynt heirs with Jesus Christ Now you know a childe when he is under age he differs nothing from a servant but is under Governours and Tutors till he comes to be heir and Lord of all things A reverent Divine whom I heard occasionally said that there were four priviledges which attend Adoption 1. Liberty 2. Right and title 3. Correction and 4. Boldness Now how come we to be the Sons of God but by the Spirit the Spirit witnesseth with our spirits that we are the children of God This spirituall freedom it is not such a freedom as the world dreams of ☞ it doth not exempt us from the obedience to the Laws either of God or man The Spirits liberty what it i. it is not a freeing us from obeying the Civil Magistrate it is not a freeing us from afflictions and crosses in the world Nay rather it is a sign thou art a child of God and that thou art instated into this liberty if thou art corrected God chastneth every son whom he receiveth The Spirit likewise gives us freedom and liberty to come with confidence by faith into the presence of God Eph. 2. For through him we both have access through one spirit unto the Father By the Spirit we have access by Christ unto God the Father so that whatsoever prayer you put up to God the Father What prayer is accepted by God if it be not a fruit of the Spirit and tendred up in Christs Name it shall never be accepted God owns nothing but what is his own Whatsoever is not of the Spirit it is of the flesh Men may be moved with fait speeches enticing words eloquent phrases as the people of Tyrus and Sidon with Herods eloquent Oration Act. 12.21 but all the eloquence in the world is no more to God than the lowing of an Ox or the howling of a Dog if it come not from the Spirit Dr. Gouge in his whole Armour of God and whatsoever is of the flesh it is our own it comes from us and not from God A childe of God he is partly flesh and partly spirit Now God the Father for Jesus Christs sake in whom they are in Covenant with him he over-looks all the fleshly part all their infirmities all the wandrings and gaddings of spirit in their prayer and what is the fruit of his own spirit that he receives and looks upon it as a spirituall prayer in and for the sake of Jesus Christ and because some of the actings of the Spirit have been seen in it God severs the light from the smoak when it ascends up into heaven the light is the Spirits the smoak is ours Having the Spirit we must go along
nothing Men may pronounce the words but they cannot give the Spirit They may speak marvellous well but if the Spirit holds its peace they enflame not the heart They deliver the letter but the Spirit opens the sense They bring forth mysteries but the Spirit unfolds them They declare thy Commandments but the Spirit helps to fulfill them They shew us the way but the Spirit gives us help to walk in it They water outwardly but the Spirit gives fruitfulness Paul may plant and Apollo may water but it is God that gives the increase All other knowledge if thou hast not the light of the Spirit will little avail to bring thee any substantiall good or any true or solid comfort Consider with me in these severall particulars the vanity of all other knowledge compared with the light of the Spirit that hereby thou maist be stirred up to seek to God to give the Spirits teachings upon thy heart 1. All other knowledge it breeds distraction of minde and pierceth the soul through with many sorrows Eccl 1.18 He that increaseth wisdom increaseth sorrow and in much knowledge there is much grief When a man sees those many defects and fallings that are in the world those corruptions which are in Church and State those evils that attend this miserable life sees the utter impossibility to flesh and blood that these things should be amended For saith Solomon That which is crooked cannot be made straight Eccl. 1.15 and that which is wanting cannot be supplied The best of us fail in many things and there are many defects in the world which cannot be supplied in this miserable life When a man that hath his eyes in his head considers this it cannot but be a grief unto his soul The more a man knows the more he seeth his own ignorance when a fool is proud knowing nothing He sees that for all his knowledge he knows nothing in comparison of what may be known and that in many things he is uncertain and that he errs in many things this is a trouble and a vexation to his Spirit Acts 26.24 Saith Festus to Paul Much learning hath made thee mad Too much study it is a wearisomness to the flesh And over-hasty pursuit of knowledge hath crackt the brains of many men and when they attain'd that they sought after they have been as unquiet and unsetled in their Spirits as ever they were before yea they have been much more unquiet for as we commonly say what the eye sees not the heart grieves not so if men were not more knowing than formerly they have been there would not be those actings of fear of distrust of strifes contentions and emulations as there are in their spirits The Poets feign of Promotheus A Morall that having stoln fire from heaven his carckass was bound to the mountain Caucasus where a Vulture doth continually feed upon his lungs The Morall of it is good noting unto us this that when men seek after that knowledge which will not profit they do but eat out their spirits with many sorrows But the light of the Spirit it is full of comfort Psal 97. Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart There is no such comfort like to that which flows in upon a sanctified knowledge of the things of God 2. A little knowledge with true grace is better then all the knowledge in the world without the light of the Spirit If thou didst know the whole Bible by heart and the sayings of all the Philosophers what would it avail thee without charity and the grace of God Vanity of vanities all is vanity but only to know God and to love him being known What would it avail thee to dispute profoundly of the Trinity if thou be void of humility It is not knowledge but grace makes a man glorious in the eyes of God The Kingdom of God it consisteth not in words but in vertue The Kingdom of God is within you it cometh not by observation If men religions men professing Christians would bestow so much labour in rooting out of vices and planting of vertues as they do to move doubts and questions there would not be so much prophanness in the world nor so much looseness amongst Professors 3. Other knowledge puffeth up but the light of the Spirit it humbleth The Titles that the Schoolmen had do evidently show their monstrous pride one was called Jacobus de Voragine as though he had eaten up the whole book of God in reading it another Doctor Scraphicus Angelicus another Doctor Subtilis Doctor Irrefragabilis venerabilis inceptor Doctor fundatiffimus Dector illuminatus Doctor resolutum 1 Cor. 13. Knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth As winde in the head makes a man giddy so this vain worldly knowledge it makes a man giddy and unstable in the truth It is as leaven A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump so a little vain knowledge will swell the heart of man that it can hardly contain it self A vain knowing person he never ascribes to God his parts and abilities and gives him the increase of his talents but to himself As Herod did when he had made an elegant Oration in the Auditory he is so farre from giving glory to God that he suffers the people to cry out It is the voice of a God and not of a man So it is usuall with Scholars when they have done a thing whereby they have gained credit as made an elegant Oration or done some great thing whereby they have gained some honour Dr. Goodwin on the variety of thoughts to be often pondering with themselves the chief things contained in the work and to revolve in their mindes those commendable speeches which have been given them for their pains As the Cow after it hath sed it useth to chew the cud so these do as it were chew the cud by meditating in their mindes with self-applause and self-pride what glorious things they have accomplisht and what praise they have obtained for them And as Nebuchadnezzar prided himself in the glory of his outward pomp Dan. 4.30 saying Is not this great Babel which I have built So these pride themselves in the glory of their archievements Have not I done such a curious piece of business worthy of the name of a Scholar Pride ambition and covetousness do sweetly sleep in the hearts of many Scholars Cyprian What is the reason that in these later times there shall be such an apostacy from the faith This is the reason The true reason of apostacy in these our daies because knowledge shall abound men shall pride themselves in their parts and abilities and exalt themselves above the grace of Jesus Christ and the simplicity of the Gospel and therefore cause God to give them over to strong delusions that they should beleeve lies Ezek. 28.3 The proud King of Tyrus he thought himself wiser than Daniel he thought himself wiser and in a better condition than
say For the holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say Whether the Saints in the Primitive times who suffered for the Gospel or the Martyrs in Queen Maries daies had not these influences of the Spirit upon their sad exigencies when they were brought before their cruell persecutors to answer for themselves is beyond all controversie Certainly silly men and women I mean in respect of any deep knowledge could never on a sudden express their mindes so excellently concerning the things of God had they not more than ordinary at such a time the teachings of the Spirit upon their hearts witness that woman of Exeter mentioned in the Book of Martyrs with many others The times wherein the Spirits teachings are most manifest 1. In times of affliction thou art most of all sensible of the teachings of the Spirit upon thy heart In themselves they manifest nothing to the soul but the displeasure of an angry Judge intending to destroy them but the Spirit concurring along with them and shewing us the minde and will of God they are precious cordials and purgations for the sinne of our souls If afflictions could make us hearken to the voice of God and savingly instruct us and teach us those things which concern our everlasting peace why do not many wicked wretches who live under the scourge of the Almighty all their daies who have one wave of affliction after another upon them learn obedience by the rod and understand the minde and intent of God Afflictions in themselves are neither good nor evil but accordingly as they are improved by us through the help of the Spirit according to the will of God Now although the Spirit hath written the things of God long before upon our hearts yet the manifestation of those things most of all is apparent to us when God doth instruct us by his rod together with his Spirit that those graces which for a long time were not discerned by us being pressed down by affliction may send forth a precious smell in the nostrils of our God and to the sense of others We learn by afflictions 1. To see those things which we never perceived to be in us before to wit the actings of divine grace in us supporting us and carrying us along chearfully through this valley of Baca and the actings of our spirit towards God again in way of filiall affection and son-like obedience under his hand being taught by the Spirit what the mind of God is concerning them As no man knoweth the vileness of his heart till God is pleased to let Satan have his liberty to tempt him and his own hearts lusts to draw him aside So none can know the prevailings of grace upon his own heart and the efficacy of divine teachings and the triall and experience of those things which are written upon his heart till God shall bring him under the fiery triall The Spirit hath taught us that all trust and confidence is to be reposed in God alone because God alone is able to deliver us and that we may thereby be quit and set free from all those distracting fears which do molest us Psal 37.5 Commit thy waies unto the Lord that thy thoughts may be established Now our confidence in God is then most of all exercised when all other props and staies do fail us and we cast our selves under the arms of Almighty God We know not our own strength against the temptations of sinne and Satan that we are fortified with the whole armour of God Ephes 6. to wit the shield of faith the helmet of hope the breast-plate of righteousness the sword of the Spirit the Spirit of prayer and supplication the inward support and aid of the Spirit of God and the continuall prayers of Jesus Christ interceding for us at the right hand of his Father that our graces fail not in the hour of tribulation till God shall smite us with his rod. By afflictions the teachings of the Spirit of God upon our hearts are most known to others Rev. 14.12 Here we may reade the patience of the Saints the sincerity of their hearts the power of divine grace and the sweetness of the comforts of the Spirit upon their hearts when we see them cheerfully willingly and joyfully submitting themselves to the good pleasure of God 2. By afflictions we are more and more acquainted with the evil nature of sinne which hath brought such afflictions upon us with the holiness of God which cannot away with sinne and sinners and with the exact justice of God against it in so severely punishing of it with the benefit that comes by seeking Gods face and by walking up to the light which God hath put within us 3. The Spirit of God is very active upon the hearts of believers at such a time in rooting out the remainders of originall corruption and in the exciting of those things which he hath put within them 2. Near the time of death Sweet have been the discoveries of Gods Spirit upon the hearts of his children when they have been near the time of their dissolution for these reasons 1. Because near such a time Satan and all our spirituall enemies will muster up all their assaults to weaken a believers faith hope and confidence in God especially when the believer hath been a hainous sinner formerly and after his conversion hath fallen into some gross sinne to the wounding of his own conscience and to the quenching of the blessed Spirit for a time though the sin is done away by the blood of Jesus Christ and the pardon of it sealed by the testimony of the Spirit yet the devil will be pudling in this old sore and perswading him to the contrary telling him that his conversion was never reall because since he hath fallen so foully in the flesh The devil tempted Christ when he was near the time of his suffering to drive him from his hope and confidence in God his Father Saith Christ The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me Joh. 14.30 Christ was perfectly holy so that no temptation could take hold of him to overcome him ☞ or to taint him with the least sinne But we poor creatures when the devil comes to tempt us have something in us we have a great deal of unbelief abiding in us we have a body of sinne and of death and hereupon our bullwarks would easily fall our confidence in God would easily give place to unbelief were not the Spirit of God which is in us stronger than him who by way of eminency is in the world 1 Joh. 4.4 to wit the devil Now God on the other side fils a believer with continuall fresh and renewed supplies of his Spirit and with new experiences of his love unto him bringing unto his remembrance all former loving kindnesses past between God and his soul what a great work was wrought upon him in the work of conversion what various dispensations of
hath an interest in Jesus Christ in the Covenant of grace and in all those priviledges which belong to the Saints because the spirit of sanctification abides upon him but meerly an opinionative self-conceited vain glorious presuming confidence that Christ is his and he is Christ though no regard be had to those qualifications which are required in those in whose hearts Christ dwells by his blessed spirit Every hypocrite that hath been once enlightned and tasted of the heavenly gift and of the powers of the world to come will lay claim to the priviledges of the Saints and of the benefits that flow upon the account of the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ though their hearts were never truely wrought upon to a full and a final closing with Jesus Christ and they never had the witnesse of the spirit upon their hearts that he is the childe of God but the teachings of the spirit bring in unto the soul solid reasons founded upon the word of God and upon the experience of the Saints whereby from the foregoing premises he can draw a true and a real conclusion that he is Christs and Christ is his Justification and sanctification are inseparable according to that golden chain of mans salvation Rom. 8.30 Whom he justified them he also sanctified so that besides the testimony of the spirit he hath those inherent principles of sanctification within him whereupon he may evidently conclude that he is no changeling but a new born creature a true Citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem a true son amongst the Native sons of Zion But some weak Believer may say how may I distinguish between the Witness and the testimony of the spirit that I am the childe of God and that vain confidence and presumption which is in wicked mens hearts who say they are the children of God when they are not 3. The spirit doth not onely bear witness but fully perswade us of this very thing upon solid reasons which we finde true by our own experience that we are the children of God therefore saith that knowing Apostle Saint John 1 John 3.14 1 Iohn 4.13 We know that we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit But wicked men who are full of carnal confidence and sinful presumption have no sweet experience of saving grace upon their souls or any testimony much less a perswasion of the spirit that they are the children of God The grounds of carnal presumption but this presumption ariseth from a bare conceit of their good estate still hoping well of themselves or from the delusion of the Devil who hath besotted their minds with his sinfull Sophistry 2. The spirits testimony is founded upon Gods word and not upon any testimony from our selves 3 Wheresoever the spirits testimony is upon the hearts of any there follows a hatred of sin zeal for the glory of God a care and conscience to serve God in all well-pleasing for as some eminent Divines do say though I do not pin my faith upon any mans sleeve but onely as the light of the word and the light of the spirit teacheth me the doctrine of assurance will not make a Christian secure and idle in the work of the Lord ☜ but more watchful over his wayes and more thankful for so great a mercy being constrained by the love of God to the obedience of the truth and that the preaching of the Cross of Christ what love and mercy God the Father and Jesus Christ what power and wisdom was put forth in that great work of mans Redemption is of a more prevailing nature then to preach the terrors of the Law against sin and sinners to bring men out of their natural condition though both wayes must be used even by fear plucking them forth out of the fire of hell 2. Quere Whether or no are the spirits teachings or the light of the spirit in the heart of a Believer a sufficient plea for him to cast off all Ordinances means of grace as unprofitable things under so clear a dispensation I answer no 1. For as Jesus Christ in explaining the Law of Moses did not abrogate the law or derogate any thing from the use and majesty of it Mat. 6. but only clear it from those foul aspersions which the Pharisees had cast upon it so the spirit in teaching us the things of God and in enlightning our minds to understand his will doth not take away the use of the word but adds a further light unto it that we may understand the minde of the spirit in it and that all those prevarications by reason of the darkness of our understanding may be rightly placed The Sun is full of light but a blinde man cannot see it So the word is clear in it self but because our understandings are darkned we cannot understand it Now the spirit of God doth five things in order to the word of God 1. It explains it 2. It gives a further authority unto it 3. Shews us the majesty The spirits actings in reference to the word purity and excellency of it 4. Makes us to prize it above all things 5. Enables us to keep it 2. Because the word of God acknowledgeth no Spirit but what works in and by the word Gal. 5.2 Received ye the spirit by the Law or by the hearing of faith Did ye not receive the spirit by the preaching of the doctrine of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ The spirit teacheth which is consonant and agreeable to the word of God so that the word and the spirit both concurr together the spirit as the principal agent the word as the instrument which can do nothing without the spirit to teach us the will of God and to work in us all those saving Graces which accompany salvation 3. Because the word of God in the Scripture is set down as a standing rule according to which we must frame our lives unto the end of the world 1 Tim. 3.13 Till I come give attendance to Reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Attendere cum diligentia cu ram adhibere to Exhortation to Doctrine 15. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear unto all 16. Take heed unto thy self 1 Pet. 1.23 Mat. 5.18 and unto thy doctrine continue in them c. The word of God which liveth and abideth for ever Not the least tittle of the word of God shall fail till all things be accomplished some of which things will not be fulfilled till the end of the world The Sacraments also are in use and have their efficacy for that end for which they were appointed by God in his Church to the end of the world 1 Cor. 11.26 By the Sacrament of the Lords Supper we are to remember the Lords death till he come so that till Christ shall come againe at the
are now adays in sheeps cloathing If an impudent contradicting blaspheming spirit If a persecuting spirit If an advancing of their own fictions before the pure and unspotted word of God If a rash impetuous zeal not moderated with discretion and the love of the truth and of the word of God which is rather madness and folly then zeal If unbelief Atheisms Heresies and most horrid blasphemies not to be mentioned If a living above Ordinances without the use of the Word Sacraments and Prayer If a coldnesse and deadnesse in affection to the things of God and a full bent of will to oppose Jesus Christ in his Saints and in his servants and a continual persisting therein though they are condemned in their own consciences and so are like to commit that unpardonable sin against the holy Ghost from which sin I heartily beseech God to preserve the Quakers of these times with many others who sin against the light of their own consciences If a hating of the power of godliness and of the pure worship of God If a want of self-denial and daily bearing the cross of Christ If an Apostacy from the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints If a setting up of false doctrines under the pretence of new discoveries If we are not fallen into the last times of the world wherein that place is too much verified wherein men shall be covetous lovers of themselves boasters proud blasphemers 2 Tim. 3.1.2 3 4 5. disobedient to parents unthankeful unholy Without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good Traytors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God Having a form of Godliness but denying the power of it If these things be so as it is too apparent to the grief of many righteous persons who weep in secret for the iniquity of the times then we may as truly say that Turks Infidels and Pagans have the teachings of the spirit upon their hearts as the most part of our luke-warm proud opinionative and carnally-minded professors have Such evil principles and wicked practises as are now amongst those that goe for Saints cannot agree with the blessed spirit I am verily perswaded that if once the furnace of affliction should wax hot again and Christ should come to sift England again by the red fiery flaming sword of persecution and bring us under the hatchet and under the hand of Tyrannical persecutors and should come to purge his floor to distinguish between the precious and the vile between him that feareth God and him that feareth him not between him that serveth him out of an upright heart and him that serveth him but under a colour and pretence I am verily perswaded that the greatest part of profesting Christians now adays who make such a fair shew in the flesh who seem so beautiful and glorious in the outside who are so hot at the first onset and taking up a form of religion who pretend so much to the work of the spirit upon their hearts if they were singled out to undergoe the fiery tryal would fall the fowlest in the flesh No outward priviledge or benefit can afford a man any comfort under an afflicted condition but onely the sense of the love of God unto us in Jesus Christ by an act of the spirit sealing it to our souls is a certain sign that we shall continue unto the end For who God loves once he loves to the end And those whom God loves God will preserve unto himself as a peculiar treasure as precious jewels in his cabinet secretly and will make their mountains strong as strong as Mount Sion which shall never be moved that their faith and confidence shall be in the Lord Jehovah for ever and ever I beseech thee Christian for the good of thy soul to separate thy self from these deceiving creatures let not their hypocrisy their jugling with the world and their own consciences though they cannot mock God their seeming sanctity their pretended piety their high notions and deep interpretations far fetch from the simplicity of the truth which neither they themselves nor others well understand delude thee while they lay claim to the spirit they are in the bonds of iniquity Consider whether they have the spirit before thou closest with their sayings for truth that they are taught by the Spirit of Christ and that the light of the spirit reside within them Are they regenerated born again and renewed by the Spirit of Christ Do they grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ Have they the witness of Gods Spirit concurring with their spirits that they are the children of God Doth the spirit help their infirmities Was ever the spirit of prayer and supplicatton powred forth upon them Have they the preventing grace the renewing grace the establishing grace the comforting grace the quickning grace the healing grace the directive grace of the spirit Do they love the brethren because they are brethren and one with thee in Jesus Christ or because they are of such an opinion Do they acknowledge the spirit in others and magnifie Gods goodness unto their soul Did the spirit ever rarifie the scorching heat of their burning lusts Did the sanctifying influences of the spirit ever descend upon their hearts Did the spirit ever soften their hard hearts Cant. 7.7 fructifie their barren souls The brests of the spouse are like clusters of grapes Cant. 4 16 Did the spirit ever blow upon their gardens that the spices thereof may send forth a precious smell in the nostrils of God Do they bring forth fruits unto holiness that their end might be everlasting life Did the spirit ever quench the fire of hell within their consciences by powring in the sweet oyl of consolation made up of the blood of Christ Did the spirit ever cleanse their consciences from dead works that they may serve the everliving God Heb. 9.14 Ez. 36.25 The spirit is resembled by water I will pour clean water upon you and you shall be clean It is the nature of water to molifie to fructifie to quench to cleanse and purifie what zeal what heat what ardency of spirit what kindlings of affections are there in them towards God and the waies of his worship what lights do they hang abroad to others that others seeing their good works might glorifie God and what progress do they make in Christianity with what eagerness of spirit as if they were serious for their souls good do they lay hold on eternal life Nay rather do they not stand still as if they had already obtained perfection when they are on the declining hand In fire there is heat brightness and motion Ex. 13.22 What Dove-like qualifications have they Doth the spirit of meekness of love and of a sound mind reside amongst them The spirit of peace of unity of gentleness of fear of sonlike obedience to the commands of God The Spirit of God came down in the form
and deportment in preaching the Gospel to them to this end to breed Schisms in the Church for saith he I was with you in weakness and in fear Yers 3. and in much trembling that is he was so farre from being pust up with those gifts and graces which God had indued him with that he was among them with much infirmity in much affliction and in much contempt as he saith Who is weak and I am not weak we are fools for Christs sake 1 Cor. 4.10 but ye are wise we are weak but ye are strong ye are honoured but we are despised In the 2. Cor. 10.10 For say they his Letters are weighty and powerfull but his bodily presence is weak and his speech coutemptible So that the Apostle was no promoter of Sects and Separations and Parties in the Church but these divisions came from their lusts from their carnality and fleshly mindedness 1 Cor. 3.3 4. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnall and walk as men For when one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo are ye not carnall So saith the Apostle James Iom 4.1 From whence are warres and contentions among you are they not hence even from your lusts that warre in your members It is a sign thou art of a proud impetuous and of an ambitious spirit if thou art a breeder of dissentions in the Church of God and that which was falsly charged upon Paul that he was a seditious person and a disturber of the Nation and upon Jeremy Act. 24.5 Ier. 15.10 that he was a man of ftrife may be justly charged upon thee who for a very light occasion makes a departure from the Church of God Pro. 13.10 From pride cometh contention saith Solomon so thou art of a proud spirit if thou art of a contentious spirit Hence observe Note That the Ambassadors of Jesus Christ and of the Gospel of his grace must be men of peace and not study to make factions and parties in the Church of Christ They should endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 They should endeavour to preserve the truth of God that so the truths of God may preserve them For as long as they stand up in Gods cause in opposition to the flesh the world and the devil God will stand by them and plead for them and smite through the loins of them that shall rise up against them Jude v. 3. They must contend earnestly for the faith that was once delivered unto the Saints and plead with that Whore of Babylon by the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God and vindicate the Scriptures from all those foul aspersions which the locusts of the bottomless pit together with the Socinians Arminians Anabaptists and Quakers of these times have cast upon it The Church it is the House of God and the Word is Gods Looking-glass which he hath set up in his House whereby all the defects and spots and blemishes which are in Gods people may be discerned and this word is committed to the hands of the Ministers as Trustees and Stewards to give out and to dispense to every soul its portion as time and occasion shall require Now this treasure is in earthen Vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 that the praise might not be of men but of God and the people are not to be their own carvers as now adaies many are but to require the word at their mouths and to obey them in all lawfull commands examining by the Scriptures whether those things be true or no which they preach as the Beraeans did Act. 17.11 and highly to honour them for their work sake But now if they shall contrary to Gods Word set up new Lights in Gods Church and offer up strange fire as Nadab and Abibu did Lev. 10.1 and a new Looking-glass in Gods House and appoint those things which God never commanded neither came it ever into his thoughts to require and rend the seamless Coat of Christ that is the Church by their inventions and traditions and seek new doctrines and new opinions and vent them forth that others may follow their pernitious waies by reason of which 2 Pet. 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exitiis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blaspemabitur 2 Pet. 3.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 torquēt Rack the Scriptures the way of truth is evil spoken of and captivate the understandings of others by their carnall reasonings and sinfull objections whereby they wrest the Scripture to their own damnation and giddy the spirits of weak Christians by their deep notions and Allegoricall interpretations and set themselves up for the only men and to have other men called by their name and by that party they are of What is this but to be of a seditious spirit and to be the incendiaries of the Churches peace The Kingdom of Christ is a Kingdom of peace Omnes literae in nomine Jehovah sunt literae quiescentes quo observandum est Deum ipsissimum fore pacis fontem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and God is a God of peace and Christ is the Prince of peace and the Gospel is the Gospel of peace Why therefore should not Christs Ambassadors be the Ambassadors of peace I am not here against the communion of the Saints by way of Church fellowship joyntly to serve God and Jesus Christ in way of distinction and separation from the profane world But against that venomous humour which is in some men that to get themselves a name in the world do seek out and invent some strange and uncouth opinion and vent it forth with all the fair pretences of truth that possibly can be that thereby adopting to themselves proselytes they may walk in the light of their own fancies and delight in the vanity of their own imaginations Observe again That for Beleevers to call themselves by the names of their spirituall guides be they never so holy and religious men or by strange names taken up by the contumelies of ungodly men it is an unchristian thing The word Brethren is very often used in the Acts of the Apostles in the Epistle to the Romans and in several other places Act. 9.30 10.13 16.2 17.10 18.18 Rom. 12.1 and disagreeing to the minde of the Spirit Those be the best names which the Scripture useth as Brethren Beloved in the Lord Saints Christians Servants of Jesus Christ c. It was Luthers charge to his followers that after his death they should be sure not to call themselves by his Name that is not to be called Lutherans by his Name Luther and why Did Luther die for you or Christ If Christ died and was crucified for you let him be your Lord and Master But if Christ did not die for you and I died for you then let me be your Lord and Master and be ye called by my Name This argument the
God Ephes 3.19 Not so as Christs humanity was filled with the fulness of God for the Spirit was not given unto him by measure Plenitudo gratiae est duplex 1. Respectu suipsius Quando aliquis consequitur ultimum gradum gratiae quoad essentiam quoad virtutem in tensivè extensivè ut aiunt qui habes gratiam juxta omnes illius effectus operationes secuudum quas se potest extendere Hoc modo Christus tantùm gratiam habebat 2. Respectu subjecti Quando aliquis habet plenitudinem gratiae secundum suum statum conditionem Sic Stephaum dicitur esse plenus Spiritu sancto And in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily But we as imperfect creatures in this life shall receive of that communicable fulness or of that fulness which can be communicated to creatures as creatures fulness of grace and fulness of the Spirit according as we are able to receive it Every thing which is received is received according to the capacity of the receiver a bucket can hold no more water than what is meet for a bucket to hold Now we who are but as the drop in the bucket and as the dust in the balance in his sight that are not able to receive all the fulness of God but only all that which may be communicated to the creature and that is very little in this life though in the lise to come our buckets shall be enlarged i. e. our souls made of a more capacious nature and we shall be able to draw more abundantly and to contain more of this ocean of happiness We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit Eph. 5.18 Be ye filled with the Spirit and as Commentaors observe the former clause of the verse being this Be not drunk with wine the later clause of this verse may be interpreted likewise But be ye drunken with the Spirit This is a good drunkenness to be drunk with the Spirit as those in the Acts were who were drunk in a spirituall sense though not in that carnall sense as they judged them to be because they were filled with the Spirit The world and the godly are quite Antipodes the world is acted by a worldly spirit and the people of God by the holy Ghost which appears by that malignity which hath been in the world since the Creation against the people of God the first actings of which were seen in Cains murdering his brother Abel Simile simili gaudet like rejoyceth in its like and if the world and the children of God were alike they would love one another Saith Christ If you were of the world Ioh. 15.19 the world would love you but seeing you are not of the world and I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you Sed est particula discretiva seu disjunctiva apud Logicos 2. This opposition between the Spirit of God and the spirit of the world is implied in this particle But We have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God Here I should shew the difference and that vast discrepancy between the Spirit of God and the spirit of the world But because for the future when God shall enlarge my spirit and occasion may be offered this may be a fit subject for a future Discourse I shall omit this as not belonging to my present intent and purpose only by the way I shall distinguish between a double spirit by which the world is acted The world hath a double evil spirit 1. Satan that evil spirit Ephes 2.2 Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the ayr the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per modum eminentiae emphatically that now worketh in the children of disobedience Here we have two Epithetes ascribed to the devil and both as he hath relation to the world 1. He is called the Prince of the world the Prince of the power of the ayr i. e. the Prince of all the infernall brood that are in the world And the word Ayr is put Synecdochically as a part for the whole for the world and the inhabitants thereof because God hath given him power by his permission to raise commotions in the ayr and to do seeming miracles as appears in the story of Job Job 1. when he caused a wind to come from the four parts of the earth and to smite the four corners of the house when it fell down and killed the children of Job A strange wind that could smite all the four corners of the house all at once Now because the devils greatest power is seen in the ayr by doing his seeming miracles in that he is called the Prince of the power of the ayr is meant that he is the Prince of this world Agreeable to this is that place where he is called the God of this world and the Prince of darkness 2 Cor. 4.4 The god of this world hath blinded their eyes lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine in their hearts The devil is the great Master of misrule in the world and he it is that breedeth all the confusion which is in it He is that great sower of discord amongst men and he will sow his tares amongst the wheat Matth. 13.25 and breed quarrels and dissentions amongst the children of God he is a great slanderer a great accuser full of enmity against God and his Saints He is the envious one and all envious proud discontented lying persons are the devils subjects He is that cunning Politician wiser than all the Achitophels Judases and Maehiavillians that ever were and knows how to play his cards for the best advantage to allure souls to come under his government and ever since the Creation he hath been plotting and contriving how to root out the Gospel to persecute the Saints and to destroy the Church of God here upon earth He hath stirred up and provoked his evil instruments his great engines wicked Emperours and blood-sucking Popes the Power of the ayr in all ages to persecute the Church of God and to banish it out of the world But blessed be God who hath preserved himself a name upon the earth and though the Egyptians Babylonians Turks and Insidels and all the wicked men in the world did combine together under their leading Captain Satan against the Lord and against his anointed and against his pretious servants and thought to swallow them up alive at once and to devour them altogether that the name of God might be had no more in remembrance that yet God hath reserved himself a name upon the earth and a peculiar people to shew forth his praise and hath drowned the Egyptians in the red sea of eternall vengeance What is the reason that the Church hath been preserved against the cruell assaults of furious persecutors and against the rage
much how much more will the way of reasoning of one spirit by strength of argument work upon another spirit Arguments are spirituall weapons ☜ and he that stands to argue the case with the devil fights with the devil with his own weapons Who is the great disputer of this world the great Sophister the great Logician but the devil He useth all sorts of arguments to raise fears and jealousies in the hearts of Gods people to drive them to despair and to keep wicked men in their carnall security and desperate presumption He is the spirit of this world he is the great agent that commonly sets all the wheels and the springs a going That drives furiously as Jehn did How Satan is said to be the spirit of the wicked world hurrying wicked men in their pernitious waies The devil is the spirit of the world upon a double account 1. He acts in the world and quickens and puts vigour and brings forth into act that originall corruption that lies rooted in the heart of all men by nature The work of the Spirit it is to give life and heat and motion to cherish and refresh to excite the parts to do their office Now as the Spirit of God moved upon the waters in the first Creation hovering over the Mosaicall matter fomenting and cherishing it so the evil spirit the devil moves upon the filthy puddles in our hearts hovering over that filthy corruption which is in us cherishing and fomenting that body of death which we carry aboot us As the Vulture loves to feed upon dead carkasses so the devil loves to rake up that stinking cartion matter which is in the hearts of all men by nature Now the devil is not only an assistant spirit to the world that sees the wheels a going as the assisting Angels are ☞ which Aristotle supposeth to set the primum mobile a work but he worketh with us and he worketh in the world Sometimes our hearts like a mint out of that abundance of corruption that is in them may coin evil things for sinne in the heart will appear in the life obscene and filthy words do naturally flow from a lustfull heart But yet the coin often carries upon it the devils stamp Pliny speaks of the scorpion that there is not one minute wherein it puts not forth the sting as being loth to lose any opportunity of doing mischief so Satan will lose no fit time to tempt us to draw us to his allurements that he might destroy us Burrought Moses choice if he sees us inventing mischief he will be sure to put to his helping hand Many times the devil is the father of evil thoughts but our own hearts are the mother the devil suggesteth but it 's our own hearts that conceive according to the Psal mist They conceive mischief and bring forth falshood It is the devil that blows up the fire of lust in our hearts and adds fuell to it by his delicious objects That makes men rush into sinne as the horse rusheth into the battell As we commonly say he must needs runne whom the devil drives Satan did but put it into Judas his heart to betray his Master and presently he sets about his business As soon as the devil had entred into him he runs headlong to the destruction of his immortall soul When a man hath winde and tide and the sails be up he must needs go apace Our affections are the sails our carnall interest and self-seeking is the tide and the devil is the winde If our sails are up ☜ and the tide favours us the stream of the times or our Dallilah lusts do prosper and the devil comes and addes winde to the tide and flatters us in our waies by promising us the same gales of prosperity still we fail apace and in abundance of delight for a time till at length we fall down into the Mare mortuum into the dead sea of everlasting misery Think upon this who with a full career swim down with the current of the times and care not whither you are carried so be it your carnall interest may prosper and that you may have the favour of a flattering world You are acted by the devil and certainly at death he will pay you your wages He is that filthy unclean Idolatrous spirit that keeps the world in their superstitious waies and which to this day beguiles the poor Indians and holds the greatest part of the world in Idolatry and Heathenish impiety to the great dishonour of the true God and to their own everlasting condemnation 2. He is the spirit of the world because he not only acts the world but also because the world willingly suffers it self to be acted by him Wicked men are said to be led captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 He leads them in a string to eternall perdition As a Falconer carries his Hawk upon his fist so the devil carries poor creatures They do not take up arms to fight against him Wicked men most properly are said to act evil And because they willingly submit themselves to the devil while they are acted by the devil they may be said to act because they do not resist him The godly are rather acted to evil than said to act evil because they do that which they allow not and which under a serious debate with themselves they utterly hate but they willingly subject themselves to his Government preferring the devil before Christ and these transitory enjoyments before the God of heaven I may say the world is a sworn enemy to Jesus Christ and a faithfull drudge to do the devils drudgery As Christ admits none but voluntiers and suffers none to be of his society but they that willingly submit themselves to his discipline so the devil hath a great army of voluntiers and they willingly accept of his tearms and conditions This only is the difference the godly do take Jesus Christ for their Lord and Saviour directly and as they serve Jesus Christ who is the great Master so they love him and embrace him for their Head and Governour but now the wicked world doth not directly take the devil to be their Lord and Master for the thought of a devil is odious in the hearts of all both good and bad and none would be said to be the devils servants but in as much as they voluntarily do his works and subject themselves to his yoke they may be said indirectly and by consequence not only to have the devil for their Lord Joh. 8. but for their father Ye are of your father the devil for his works ye will do 2. As the world hath Satan for its evil spirit so it hath another evil spirit to wit that imbred evil spirit of wickedness that naturall frame of spirit in the hearts of wicked men continually tending to the waies of sinne This worldly spirit this spirit of sinne or this sinfull spirit 1 Joh. 4.3 it is called
for him It is not agreeable to the everlasting providence of such a Father who is Lord of heaven and earth to see his childe to be in want command therefore that these stones be made bread do a miracle that we may see thou art the Sonne of God God the Father will work a miracle before he will see his childe to want This the devil did to take away his minde from the love of God his Father and to drive him from his faith and confidence in God Besides it had been a sinne in Christ if he had obeyed the devil Christ had another sore conflict with the devil though not immediatly yet mediatly by Peter observe the subtilty of the devil seeing he could not prevail upon him in a publick way he comes upon him in a more covert way tempting him in a beloved Disciple Jesus Christ speaking of his sufferings that were to come to him at Jerusalem Peter disswades him from going up thither but what answer did Christ make him Get thee behinde me Satan Matth. 16.23 for thou savourest not the things which be of God but the things which are of men Christ presently espied out Satan in Peter though a beloved Disciple though a Saint though one that spoke out of a good will to Jesus Christ and out of a desire not to have his Master die ☜ O that we could so suddenly espie the devil tempting us in his wicked instruments and when they tempt us cry out Avoid Satan as Christ did So that Satan is Antichrist and he is called Satan because he is Christs and the Churches adversary Apoliyon the Destroyer the roaring Lion the subtill Serpent As the world hath a double evil spirit to wit Satan and that inbred wickedness that is in the world so the children of God have a double Spirit 1. The holy Spirit of God 2. The Regenerate part within them As appears by those two places Joh. 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit The flesh lusteth against the Spirit By Spirit may be meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either the holy Spirit of God striving with us by his motions and impressions or the Regenerate part within us which is called a Spirit The unregenerate part the corrupt flesh is called a spirit saith James Jam. 4.5 The spirit within us lusteth to envy i.e. that fleshly part within us is full of envy Lusteth to envy the same word which is in the fore-mentioned place the flesh lusteth against the Spirit And it is observable that the same action that is applied to the flesh is applied to the Spirit the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh i.e. lusteth against the Spirit Now if the same action is applied to both the principles to flesh and Spirit to wit lusteth which action is a proper action of spirits therefore the unregenerate part is a spirit And if the unregenerate much more the regenerate But you will say it is a contradiction to call the flesh a spirit Indeed to say naturall flesh were a spirit it were a contradiction in the very terms but to say flesh i.e. corrupt flesh is a spirit is no contradiction but an abuse of the word But you will say Analogum per se positum stat pro famosiore significatu therefore seeing flesh is put alone by it self it must not be meant of corrupt and sinfull flesh but of naturall flesh To this I answer That the unregenerate part is not Analogically but Aequivocally called flesh It is improperly so called because originall sin by naturall generation is propagated from the parents to the children according to the series of generation sin running continually in a direct line though it self be the only obliquity Fourthly We have a divine attribute noting the Deity of the blessed Spirit in this particle Which is of God We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God this phrase in that the holy Spirit is said to be of God imports three things 1. That the Spirit proceeded after an ineffable manner from God the Father Hic processus apud Graecos dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abusivè tamen not excluding God the Sonne Agreeable to this is that axiom in the Schools Dius Pater est principium Sanctae Trinitatis non tamen causa Principium ordinis sive relationis non essentie seu Deitatis 2. Which is of God Per Hebraismum which is God But the Spirit which is of God i.e. but the Spirit which is God 3. Which is of God that is which came from God Saith Christ I will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter Joh. 14.16 Hence note these two Observations which I shall briefly discuss and so pass over 1. That the Spirit the third Person in the blessed Trinity proceedeth from the Father and the Son Not from the Father excluding the Son as the Eastern Churches say but from the Father and the Son joyntly considered From the Father and so 't is called the Spirit of God Rom. 8.11 If the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you i. e. the Spirit of God he also shall quicken your mortall bodies From the Sonne and so 't is called the Spirit of Christ If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.9 i.e. which proceedeth from Christ he is none of his In that the holy Spirit is called the Spirit of God Sic Metaphrastes in Romanos Siquidem enim est spiritus Dei Patrīs non ipse pater sit necesse est tamen quia Dei Spiritus est verus Deus fit oportet and the Spirit of Christ is observed these three things 1. That the Spirit of God is God 2. That he is a distinct person from the Father and the Son 3. That he proceedeth from them both 2. That the Spirit of God is God Acts 5. Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the holy Ghost thou hast not lied unto men but unto God 2 Sam. 23.2 3. The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue The God of Israel said the reck of Israel spake to me 1 Cor. 12.6 But there are diversities of gifts but the same God which worketh all in all 1 John 5.7 For there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one 1. Consider the Scripture gives those attributes to the Spirit which are only proper to God 1. Eternity Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternall Spirit c. 2. Omniscience 1 Cor. 2.10 The Spirit searcheth all things 3. Omnipresence Psal 139.7 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit 4. Almightiness 2 Tim. 2.7 Isa 11.2 2. Those works are applied to the Spirit which are onely proper to God 1. Creation Gen. 1.2 And the
unless Jesus Christ intercedes and makes up the difference VIII We reade of a spirit of infirmity Luke 13.11 There was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years i. e. she had a vehement and a great infirmity lying upon her IX We reade of a spirit of judgement and of a spirit of burning Isa 4.4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion by the spirit of judgement and by the spirit of burning i. e. by great judgements and by burning afflictions That Gods judgments are compared to fire appears by that place in the Prophet Ezekiel where God saith of wicked men Ezek. 21.32 I will bring them into the fire and there I will leave them You see the sad condition of wicked men God brings them into the fire of affliction and never takes them our again When God comes to deal with wicked men for their sinnes when he begins he makes an end Afflictions shall not rise up the second time saith the Prophet Nahum Nah. 1.9 But though God may bring sore judgements upon his own people and bring them into the fire of affliction he takes them out of the fire again and doth not leave them in it as he doth wicked men but when he hath accomplisht his own work upon them and they are fit vessels for his use he takes them out of the fire It is a sign thou art not reprobate silver but tried silver and a true Saint if thou canst patiently and beleevingly undergo the siery triall And though thou maiest be ready for the present to faint under the afflicting hand of God thinking that God hath forgotten thee and that he will be gracious to thee no more yet when Gods time is fully come and thy filth is throughly done away God will take thee out of the sire and thou shalt be a glorious Saint in the sight of God Indeed Gods people may be sorely smutted and besmeared with the fire of affliction as we see by experieuce that fire commonly blacks things before it makes them clear but yet they shall not be consumed as the wicked shall be but shall be delivered Ps 34 17. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the righteous out of all their afflictions Well may Gods judgements be compared to fire to the spirit of judgement and to the spirit of burning for these reasons 1. Fire purifies it separates the dross from the pure metall so afflictions they purifie the soul Gods children are afflicted that they might be made partakers of his holiness Heb. 12.10 Before affliction came upon us we were unclean we were worldly earthly minded we forgot our God we were impure instruments fit only for the devils service But by afflictions we are cleansed we are more spirituall and have learnt to minde heavenly things more watchfull more industrious to pump out sinne as fast as it comes into the soul and to be more diligent in Gods service afflictions are Gods files whereby he takes away that rust that defiles the soul How many hath a fit of sickness an outward cross in their estates relations good names the missing of their expectations the unfaithfulness of friends the deceit that is in the world or some grief which hath been as a continuall dropping upon their souls as the Stone Wind-cholick Falling sickness c. driven home from the house of their spirituall bondage and from this mysticall Egypt where there is nothing but pollution to bethink themselves of the house of their heavenly Father Before saies David Psal 119.67 I was afflicted I went astray but now have I learned thy righteous judgements Affliction it is Gods pruning knife whereby he lops off the superfluous branches it is Gods Razor whereby he shaves off the excrescencies of sinne it is Gods niter whereby he cleanseth our defiled garments They are Gods messengers sent to call us forth our of Sodom the spirituall Sodom where there is nothing but filthiness and wallowing in the mire of sinne to prepare our hearts to meet Jesus Christ our Bridegroom in the beavenly Canaan As the shepherd sets his dog at the sheep to fetch it out of the mire and dirt wherein it is plunged so afflictions are as it were Gods dogs to bark and hunt us out of the pollutions of the world that we may be made meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light 2. Fire melts some things and consumes others Afflictions melt the heart of Gods people but they consume the ungodly Josias heart melted when he heard the Law of the Lord read 2 King 22.19 though he did but hear what threatnings God had made against the breach of his Law his heart melted within him Manasses heart melted under Gods offliction Poverty of spirit comes often from poverty of purse in a childe of God But the afflictions of the wicked they do but perboyl them for hell they are but heralds of everlasting vengeance Gods pledges that he will never do them good they do but eat out their spirits their comforts their common graces against the eternall consumption of their spirits by that ever gnawing worm 3. Fire it softens some things and it hardens others So afflictions they soften the godly but harden the wicked the more God afflicted Ahaz the more he sinned and the more his heart was hardened therefore God hath put this brand of infamy upon him never to be wiped off again 2 Chron. 28.22 This is that King Ahaz So Pharachs heart was hardened by Gods judgements It is a most dreadfull sign God intends to make thee a brand of hell fire if thy heart is hardened under the afflicting hand of God How afflictions may be said to harden Fire it softens the wax but hardens the clay afflictions do not harden as considered absolutely in themselves but accidentally as they meet with the corruptions of mens wicked hearts A wicked man is like the Smiths Anvill the more he is smitten the more rebellious and stout hearted he is ☜ Affliction it is so farre from driving a wicked man to God that it drives him farther from him making him desperate in his wicked courses and like Julian the Apostate when the dart of Gods vengeance hath been upon them they have blasphemed and cursed the holy Name of God It is a most dreadfull thing and a great aggravation of our condemnation when we adde sinne to sinne under the afflicting hand of God As in Ames 4. saies the Lord I have brought such and such judgements upon you yet have you not returned unto me saith the Lord. But Gods people are of another disposition of a flexible and of a pliable nature ready to receive whatsoever God shall impart unto them they consider that God is their Father and that all their afflictions shall be for their good That God corrects them but in measure Enashim of a weak sickly crazy man and with the rods of a man and that it is either
3. or whither it goeth so is every one that is born after the Spirit It is a very difficult thing to tell what the Spirits teachings are First Because they are teachings abstracted from sense And as the Philosopher saies by how much things are abstracted from sense the higher they are and the more difficult to be understood By how much things are more spirituall by so much the more hard it is to have a species or an apprehension of them We can conceive of things but under gross and materiall apprehensions because the Phantasm which is transferred from the active intellect to the passive is materiall That they be abstracted teachings appears 1. Because they are immediatly upon the soul and not barely upon the soul but upon the inmost parts of the soul Jer. 31. I will write my Law in their inward parts i. e. in the most retired part of the soul I will write my Law So likewise the Apostle Eph. 4.23 Be ye renewed in the spirit of your minde Not only in your minde but in the spirit of your minde What is meant by the spirit of the minde i. e. in the inmost and most spirituall part of your minde Grace hath its foundation laid deep in the soul by the Spirit of God now you know that is the best foundation which is laid the deepest the Spirit searcheth into the bottom of the soul and laies the seeds of grace as deep rooted as he can As God when he wrote the Law Exod. 32.15 he wrote it upon the two Tables of stone he wrote within and without upon the Tables noting thereby that there was no place left for man to adde any thing to the perfect Law of God So the Spirit writes within and without upon the soul The Spirit in conversion ploughs up the fallow ground of our hearts and sows the seeds of grace within us which because of the deepness of the soil cannot be at first discerned by us but when the seed begins to grow up then we see evidently what the Spirit hath been doing And as Christ said to Peter Joh. 13.7 What I am doing thou dost not know as yet but thou shalt understand hereafter so thou maiest not know for the present what the Spirit means when it teacheth thee The Spirits foundation is in the dark but when he comes to rear the building for beleevers are a spirituall house of the Spirits own building and to beautifie the work 1 Pet. 2.5 and to raise it higher and higher then thou shalt see the teachings of the Spirit The first lessons of the Spirit may be somewhat mysterious but when the Spirit shall comment upon them then nothing will be more plain unto them 2. Because they are spirituall teachings and therefore abstracted teachings They are spirituall teachings because the Spirit teacheth them A spirit cannot communicate it self to our spirit no otherwise then a spirit can Now as it is a very difficult thing and much controverted with the Schoolmen to know how the Angels impart their conceptions and express their mindes one to another whether intuitivè by viewing one another or by something analogcall to speech which we shall know when we come to heaven So it is as difficult if not more difficult to know how the Spirit communicates it self unto our hearts Satan is said to put evil things into our hearts Joh. 13.2 Satan put it into Judas his heart to betray his Master but what this putting is we cannot tell So the Spirit of God is said to put the things of God into our hearts I will put my Law into their hearts but what this putting is we cannot tell Jer. 31.33 Secondly The Spirits teachings are very mysterious because they are set forth in Scripture by various significant acts John 16.13 as if the teaching of the Spirit was not one numericall act Rom. 8.16 but as it were a complex act including many particular acts in it Col. 2.2 Job 33.31 Rom. 12.2 Sometimes the guiding act the witnessing act the assuring act the inlightning act the transforming act the helping act 2 Cor. 3.18 and in a word the teaching act is mentioned in Scripture The Spirits teaching includes many particular acts Rom. 8.26 when it teacheth us to be holy it makes us holy John 14.26 when it teacheth us assurance it assures when it teacheth us what justification is it justifies when it teacheth us to pray it is said to pray along with us Now multiplicity of acts breeds distraction of minde especially when the single acts of the Spirit are in themselves mysterious Who can tell me what the witnessing act of the Spirit is whereby he witnesseth with our spirits that we are the sonnes of God I am certain none can know what it is but he that feels the effect of it upon his own spirit and that not at all times but when he feels the spirit witnessing Who can tell me what the sealing act of the Spirit is that seal of the Spirit by which we are sealed unto the day of redemption This art is better felt than taught Who can tell me what the assuring act of the Spirit is when it begets that plerophory Heb. 10.22 that full assurance of faith Saith John in his Revelation Rev. 2.17 No man knoweth what that white stone of absolution is but he that hath it He shall have a white stone and a new name which none shall know but him that hath it The acts of the Spirit are better felt than expressed known only to those that have them not to others Having done with the premonition I come now to shew what the teachings of the Spirit be Herein I shall observe the words of the Covenant made to beleevers in Jesus Christ under the Gospel whereof one main part is the teachings of beleevers by his Spirit The teachings of the Spirit what they be The Spirits teachings upon the hearts of beleevers are his puttings writings printings ingravings the Law of God and all those things which accompany sallvation upon their hearts which ingravings c. are by a secret way power and method unknown to us but only to the Spirit only we feel the effect of the Spirits teachings upon our hearts Or It is the Spirits creating a new light within us by a secret way unknown unto us at the first which light in our consciences enkindled by the Spirit doth in all things correspond and agree with the light of the word and addes more clearness to it in respect of our selves that we might know the things of God 1. I say the Spirits teachings are his puttings writings printings engravings the Law of God upon our hearts together with all those things which shall accompany salvation Heb. 8.8 9 10. Behold saith the Lord I will make a new Covenant and this is that Testament that I will make with the house of Israel After those daies saith the Lord I will put my Laws
of the word of life that I speak Rom. 9. and 't is a certain truth that a godly poor man let him be unskilfull in humane Learning yet if he hath but that unction of the Spirit that St John speaks of he is able to discourse of the things of God more savingly experimentally and powersully than the greatest Clerks and Rulers of the world 1 Cor. 1.20 Not many mighty not many wise not many noble are called but God hath chosen the base things of the world to confound the honourable and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty God did chuse for his disciples not the learned Rabbies of the world as the Scribes and Pharisees were but a poor company of Fisher-men and Tent-makers delivered this Book unto us God called Amos from following the sheep to go and Prophesie to Amaziab And this God did to stain the pride of worldly wisdom shewing that he stood not in need of an arm of flesh to accomplish his design upon the earth but that by weak and inconsiderable means in themselves he was able to bring about the greatest designes What is the reason that the greatest Scholars are most to seek in the things of God especially in those things which accompany salvation Why as Solomon speaks they leaning to their own understandings and exalting themselves in the pride of their parts and abillities do justly cause God to leave them to themselves and in the dark because they seek not after the Spirit of God which is the chief thing to be desired if they will know the will of God We usually say that he that made the Laws can best tell how to interpret them so the Spirit of God which made the Word of God for holy men of God spake as they were inspired by the Spirit knows best how to explain it We are to compare spirituall things with spirituall and the Spirit of God speaking in one place with the Spirit speaking in another if we would know the scope and intent of the Word No man can say Jesus is the Christ but by the Spirit Saith Christ to Peter when he confessed him to be the Christ Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jona for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in heaven Now the Father as it is clear from Ephes 3.5 declared this mystery by the Spirit Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy Prophets and Apostles by his Spirit As for practicall duties 't is the Spirit only that inflames the heart enlightens the minde breeds compunction and brings sundry comforts That teacheth us to despise earthly things to leath things present and to seek after things eternall to fly honours and to suffer scandals and to place our hope and confidence in God That teacheth us that great duty of mortification If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the flesh to subdue our lusts to overcome the world to live a life of faith and not of sense to endure afflictions and to resist temptations The Spirit helpeth us to pray We know not how to pray as we ought but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities by making intercessions for us with groanings which cannot be uttered He helpeth together with and over-against us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 collaborantes adjuvat The originall word imports as when another man sets his shoulder to bear a part with us in the lifting up of any burden The Spirit of God removes those clogs and weights which be upon our spirits and puts life into the Chariot wheels of our souls by raising up our affections by stirring up the gift of God that is within us that we may pray with readiness of minde And maketh intexcession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Not that the holy Spirit is a Mediator of intercessions that is properly the office of the Sonne who is therefore stiled our Advocate 1 Joh. 2.1 But because the Spirit of God doth stirre up our hearts to prayer and infuse into us holy desires stirring us up and instructing us in this duty therefore he is said to intercede for us The Spirit likewise by causing us to groan and sigh for our sinnes is said to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered It is the Spirit alone that must convince us of our sinnes When the Spirit shall come be shall convince the world of sinne Joh. 16.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corripio pervim demonstrationis of righteausness and judgement The Spirit convinceth plainly by a demonstration shewing Thou art the man as Nathan said to David and powerfully to the conscience It is the Spirit that unites us to Jesus Christ he is the bond of our spirituall union He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his It is the Spirit that quickens The Spirit quickneth Joh. 6.63 the Word profiteth nothing It is the Spirit that sanctifieth and that regenerates the hearts of beleevers 1 John 5.18 He that is born of God sinneth not i.e. he that is born of the sanctifying Spirit of God sinneth not that great sinne against the holy Ghost which is unpardonable It is the Spirit that is the true Comforter Hence he is called by way of eminency John 16. The Comforter The earnest of our inheritance Eph. 1.14 because of his inward testifying act upon our spirits that we are Gods children It is the Spirit that driveth out that slavish fear out of our hearts making us to come with boldness and with confidence to God Psal 51. Vphold me with thy free Spirit It is the Spirit that justifies 1 Cor. 6.10 But ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God It is the Spirit that preserves the faithfull from falling away by his preventing and establishing grace from that hope that is within them unto the day of their appearance before Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ What manner of teachings the Spirits teachings are First They are infallible teachings The Spirit teacheth truly without the least errour or deceit He is called the Spirit of truth because whatever the Spirit teacheth it cannot but be truth John 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter which shall abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth The Spirit is said to lead us into all truth Joh. 16.13 When the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dux vobis erit Dux viae He shall lead you by the hand as the Nurse doth a weak sickly childe and be a guide unto you in your way In the way of truth but what he hath heara of me that
discerning which we have you would be as eager in the waies of God as we possibly can be Wicked men are not able to judge aright of the worth of grace and of the excellency of the things above as they should do therefore they preferre Barabbas before Christ and sinne before grace but the godly on the contrary they cry out with that godly Martyr Lambert None but Christ Nothing but grace Give us grace and Christ and it sufficeth us Do you think that men that are bewitched or that are besotted or that are overcome by the power of luft or that are drunken by the pleasures of sinne or that have no other light to judge by but that little spark which is left within them since the fall which is over-pressed with the corruptions of sinne these men are not fit to be competent judges of the minde of the Spirit Now all men that have not the teachings of the Spirit they are either drunken men drunk with the pleasures of sinne Eph. 4. Be not drunk with wine but be ye filled with the Spirit Or drunken with the cares of the world as Martha was who was cumbred about so many things There is a drunkenness wherein Nazarites themselves may be overcome The very cares of this world and voluptuous living have a kinde of inebriating power with them The excess of our affections in the pursuit and use of any earthly thing may be called drunkenness Dr. Sclater that she could not have time to attend to the sweet words which dropped forth from Christs-mouth Or they are drunken with self-love with self-pride with self-admiration with self-applause and so they lift up themselves before Jesus Christ The excess and immoderate use of a thing especially when the thing is unlawfull in it self may be called drunkenness as the Prophet cries forth O ye that are drunken but not with wine Isa 29.9 As wise Abigail did not discover the intent of David over night to Nabal A simile till the drink was out of his head and he had slept his sleep so these swinish men cannot understand the things of God till the Spirit of God of swines makes them men and of men Christians Many are sottish children that consider not the Lord nor the operations of his hands Isa 1.3 The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider They are benummed the devil having seared their consciences with a hot iron Now for sots and innocents to know the things of God it implies a thing impossible to flesh and blood Indeed according to the things of the world they may be wiser than the children of light but in respect of heavenly things they are sottish children Ask them what Regeneration is and about the new birth they are as great strangers to it as Nicodemus was Ioh. 3.9 Ask them concerning the teachings of the Spirit and like those in the Acts Act. 19.2 they will answer you they never heard of the teachings of the Spirit before Likewise men that are sensuall who are led by sense and not by faith who can believe nothing but what they see and can yield to no truth but what their blinde understandings can reach unto Arabicum Proverbium Obstrue quinque fenestras ut luceat domus qui sunt in eâ Shut your five windows that the house and all that are therein may shine i. e. Consult not with your senses with carnall reason which like Sarah laughs at heavenly promises and looks only to earthly possibilities and as the Sunne whose rising discovers the terrestiail globe to our sight but hides the starres and the celestiall Dr. Stoughton what they are able to apprehend these are not able to distinguish between light and darkness Now the Spirit subjects our sense to reason and reason to faith that what before we could not close withall for truth because it was above our capacity to understand by the Spirits witnessing with our spirits we can more certainly and resolvedly comply withall and beleeve than with those things we see with our naturall eyes The more we have to do with sense the less we have to do with God We finde it in naturall things that the more retired our souls are and the freer from this body of flesh and the more contracted within it self the higher it soars in the meditation of heavenly things Pleasant walks and solitary places where there is no recourse are fittest for the soul to be busie within it self by viewing Gods goodness and raising sweet experiences from severall creatures and divers objects of the infinite wisdom goodness and mercy of God in his providence over the world St Bernard that spirituall Father who had sweet Soliloquies between God and his own soul much delighted in fragrant places separate from all company that thereby he might have the more freedom of spirit to have communion with his God If a soul desires to be guided by the Spirit let it get from sense as high as it can lest like Anselm's bird intangled with the bird -lime of the world the more it flutters to escape the more it is intangled with the pollutions of it Those which have only that little spark of light within them since the fall ☜ which is like the snuff of a candle in a dark lanthorn these are to seek in the things of God They may have as it were an Owl-light but to have the Sun-light which is promised under the daies of the Gospel that the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun sevenfold Isa 30.26 this they cannot have But when the candle of the Lord which is within us For the Spirit of man it is the candle of the Lord Pro. 20.27 is inlightned by a further light superadded by the Spirit from the book of providence from the book of the creatures from the book of our own hearts we are able to draw many spirituall conclusions and are enabled to know the mind of the Spirit in the Word of God Is it so Vses That none can know the things of God but they that have the teachings of the Spirit Then First It shews us this that blindness lies upon the minde of the greatest part of the world of the greatest part of Christians because the greatest part of them are void of the Spirit That they are so I shall prove by Scripture 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty There is no inslavery no thraldom no bondage and therefore in Rom. 8. the Spirit of adoption is put in opposition to the spirit of bondage The Spirit is called a Spirit of liberty in three respects 1. The Spirit of liberty Because it hath rescued us from a state of bondage 2. Because it hath put us into a state of liberty 3. Because it gives us liberty and freedom of spirit to come with
is so far from being proud that he will stoope and condescend to the meanest Christian for their souls good The heart of man is full of wickedness it is a nest full of unclean birds for if a world of iniquity be in the tongue Jam. 3.6 How much iniquity is there in the heart Now when the Spirit shall lead us into every cell and corner of our hearts as the Lord did the Prophet Ezekiel c. 8. and shall shew the still greater and greater abominations and shall rip up every fester'd corner therein and let out all the ill blood certainly this cannot but humble a child of God the more a man sees his own vileness the more he admires the goodness of God unto him and is sensible of the evil of his sin Jam. 4.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex adverso seponit As God communicates himself to none but to the humble spirit God resisteth the proud but he giveth Grace unto the humble so none have the teachings of the Spirit but those that are humble 2. If there be the teachings of the Spirit upon the heart there will follow more joy then can well be conceived of Archimedes when he had found out a Mathematical demonstration cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found it I have found it how much more wilt thou rejoyce when thou shalt know the things of God! If Simon when he saw Christ in the Temple cryed out Now Lord let thy servant depart in peace Luk. 2.29 for mine eyes have seen thy salvation O how wilt thou rejoyce when thou shalt see Christ in thy heart dwelling there by a lively faith It is not Christ come in the flesh that saves us but Christ come in the heart Christ in us is the hope of glory Col. 1.27 Knowledge is better then life how much better is the Knowledge of God If it be such a pleasure to a man to know that which he never knew before what a pleasure is it to know by the witness of the Spirit upon our hearts that God in Christ is reconciled to us Saith the Spouse to Christ Cant. 1.2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better then Wine These words hold forth three things 1. The great familiarity between Christ and his Church As a kiss is a sign of homage and obedience Psal 2. Kiss the Son least he be angry i. e. Obey the Son do homage to him so it is a sign of familiarity and love therefore saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 16.20 Greet ye one another with a holy kiss you know friends after long absence use at their meeting to salute each other with a kiss of love The familiarity of Christ a Believer is in the kisses of his mouth i. e. the teachings of the Spirit to shew their mutual joy at their meeting together again 2. That this familiarity and mutual love between Christ and his Church comes in by his Word and by the teachings of his Spirit he doth not say with the kisses of his lipps but with the kisses of his mouth the word Kisses is taken in Scripture for flattering soft and pleasant words shewing forth some love and charity Prov. 27.6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful The Churches desire is that Christ would instruct her by his Word and Spirit for his love is better then wine 3. The love of Christ in the kisses of his mouth to his Spouse is better then wine all the comparisons in this book of Canticles are drawn from things which do most of all title our minds and delight our senses Wine amongst those things which belong to the taste is the sweetest The love of Christ in the teachings of his Spirit is better then all things better then Wine then Wine which maketh glad the heart of man If Christs love in the kisses of his mouth be better then wine then certainly the joys which come in by the teachings of Gods Spirit are better then the joys which come in by wine all the joyes which come in by these carnal delights are of a perishing nature as soon as the act is past the pleasure is past A drunkard as soon as his cup is down the pleasure vanisheth but the joyes that come in by the Spirits teachings are abiding joyes all other joyes have a sting at the end of them sin it hath a fair entrance The disference between the joyes of the Spirit and other joyes but at the length it bites like an Adder and stings like a Scorpion but the joy that comes from the Spirit is without sorrow it is not adulterate Wine but pure and sweet Wine Psal 122.1 I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord. Psal 27.4 One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the dayes of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple As the Doctrine of Christ exceedeth all other Doctrine so it breedeth a greater delight and joy in the heart then other Doctrines do He that hath the light of the Spirit will discern therein a secret and hidden Manna which the world knoweth not of As the dew descendeth upon the ground and rejoyceth the earth and maketh it to flourish so the Spirits teachings are by the dew to refresh the barren and drooping Spirit Hos 14.5 I will be at the dew unto Israel he shall grow as the Lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon Dent. 32.2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain my speech shall distil as the dew as the small rain upon the tender herbe and as the showers upon the grass As the dew in Spring and Autume when the Aire is temperate and clear doth fresh the ground and make the herbs to flourish and to give a sweet smell so the teachings of the Spirit they cause our hearts to rejoyce they come as the rain upon the dry ground and as the dew upon the tender herbe Phil. 4.4 A Christian should alwayes be of a joyful Spirit Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say unto you rejoyce 2 Cor. 11 30. saith Paul I rejoyce in my infirmities what if thy sins were never so many Did not Christ satisfie for thy sins Are thy afflictions heavy upon thy Spirit the joyes which flow in from the Spirit of God will superabound and exceed all thy afflictions besides the Spirit will teach thee Heb. 12.10 1. That all thy afflictions are but to make thee partaker of the holiness of God Rom. 8.28 2. That they shall work for thy good all things shall work for the good of them who love God 3. All thy afflictions cannot hinder God from loving of thee God loves a Saint in prison in nakedness in famine in distress God loved Job on the Dunghill Lazarus with
last day in glory power and majesty we shall stand in need of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper for the confirmation of our faith and to remember the death and sufferings of our blessed Saviour till he shall come to judgement Prayer also is a standing duty required of all Christians while they are on this side heaven that thereby their faith and hope in God might be exercised We are commanded to pray continually that is to let no time wherein this duty is required of us 1 Thess 5. 4. Because a Believer stands in need of continual food and nourishment that the tent of the word and the Bread and Wine Sacramentally so understood should be continually put in his mouth whilst he is under age in respect of that perfection and ripeness he shall attain unto when this mortal life shall be swallowed up in glory that his soul might be nourish'd up unto everlasting life Likewise here bebelow we stand in need of many things strength of grace to overcome sin patience under adversity the arm of God to support us under all our weaknesses heavenly comforts daily supplies of the spirit of grace renewed arts of Divine assistance continually bread for our bodies food for our souls therefore we ought to make our requests by prayer unto God daily for all temporal and spiritual blessings Obj. When we have the greater light what need have we of the lesser when we have the Sun-light what need have we of the Star-light when we have the light of the spirit what need have we of the light of the word when we have that which supplieth all our wants what need we pray what need have we of the Sacraments the spirit can supply all our wants without the use of the means 4. In respect of our selves the light of the spirit is to be preferred before the light of the word but seeing that the light of the word is subordinate to the light of the spirit and that the light of the word and the light of the spirit do not differ in respect of the subject matter but onely in respect of manifestation and the spirit enlightens in and by the word therefore the light of the spirit doth not take away the use of the light of the word besides the comparison doth not hold because the collation between the light of the Sun and Stars and the light of the word and of the spirit halts and is imperfect The spirit enlightens our minds in and by the word but the Sun shines of its self and not in and by the Stars The spirit likewise though it can supply all our wants without the use of means yet it never ordinarily doth without the use of the means God gives his spirit onely to those that pray for it and when we have the spirit we are still to desire God that his spirit may exert his power upon us and act in us and by us that we may not onely have the spirit but feel the operations of the spirit upon our hearts God knows what we want before we pray and can give us them without our asking but God will have us pray that thereby we might acknowledge his power his goodness his mercy and the like and that thereby our faith and patience might be made manifest If upon the account of the indwelling of the spirit in the hearts of the godly they should forbear to pray I would know of those who say so why the Spirit of God is termed the spirit of prayer and supplication as in the prophecy of Zachariah Zech. 12.10 but onely because it stirs up in us good desires and holy affections and puts words into our mouths acceptable words whereby our petitions may be accepted of God Let them likewise answer the portion of Scripture if they can in the sixth of the Ephesians 18. Praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints 5. If we should onely hearken to the voice of the spirit and to the spirits teachings in our hearts there would be no certainty of the true Religion when there can be no Character given by which the spirit of Christ might be distinguished from our owne proper spirit as from the spirit the divel which sometimes transforms himself into an Angel of light That is the pretences of a mans own spirit or of the divel in the hearts of others may seem so true and real to a man himself as if they were doctrines taught by the blessed Spirit Now how should we try the spirits whether they be of God or no but by the word of God Obj. It is a true signe of Divine instinct when of that which we believe or do we are perswaded of and rooted in without any ambiguity or doubting Ans This is a false sign for the Turks and Infidels are as much obstinated and setled in their own doctrines Traditions yea more setled then most of those Christians who pretend so much to the spirit Q. But some may say though we grant you that the teachings of the spirit do not in themselves make us to be above the Ordinances of God and the meanes of Grace yet may we not then when we come to be perfect Christians high-grown Saints and have lived under the teachings of the Spirit along while may we not then cast off the use of the Word the Sacraments and Prayer and only depend upon the Spirit for his supply I answer No. 1. Because the best grown Christians in this life are not above the teachings of the word but ought to minde the light of the Word as well as the light of the Spirit Rom. 1.14 I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians both to the wise and to the unwise Heb. 5.14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of age Strong meat the Word and Sacraments which through long custom have their wils exercised to discern both good and evil 1 John 2.13 I write unto you fathers because ye have known him that is from the beginning c. 1 Pet. 1.1 The Apostle Peter writes to the elect ones and to those who are born again as appears by the fourteenth verse of the same Chapter 1 Cor. 10.15 I speak as unto them which have understanding Phil. 3.15 Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded 1 Cor. 11.26 Eph. 4.12 13. He gave some Apostles some Prophets c. Till we all meet together in the unity of the faith and the acknowledgement of the Son of God unto a perfect man and unto the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ which fulness shall not be till after this life as appears by that place 1 Cor. 13.9 10.11 For we know in part and we prophesie in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be abolished 2. Because the highest grown Christians in this life are
of the Son of God and art thereby become guilty of the death of Jesus Christ and of thy own eternal condemnation Walk up to this precious light seek not to put out the candle of the Gospel lest God in wrath for thy idleness thy unprofitableness thy stubbornness come and put it out himself But walk in the light as long as thou hast the light repent of thy sins repent from thy sins leave thy sins which have crucified Christ which have been nails and spears in thy Saviours side and as thou art willing to be saved by him so likewise be thou governed by him that Christ might be thy Lord as well as thy Saviour lest otherwise by the hardness and impenitency of thy heart thou treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and the righteous revelation of the judgement of God by despising the riches of Gods Grace revealed unto thee in the Gospel of his Son R m 1.2 3 4. 5. To the light of the conviction of Gods spirit walk up to the light of the spirit convincing thee of thy sins The spirits conviction is the spirits setting home upon the conscience some sin by undeniable arguments A description of the spirits conviction and by an evident demonstration derived from the Word of God whereby the sinner may know that he is guilty of the same sin together with some dreadful place of Scripture holding forth the terrible judgement of God upon those who commit such a sin that thereby he might be drawn to a loathing and to a forsaking of it Sad is their condition who have such a conviction upon their hearts and do not comply with the conviction for the forsaking of their sins That think by merry company by worldly employments by long continuance to shake off this conviction from their spirits Better had it been for thee that thou hadst never been born then that thou shouldst live all thy days in the commission of any known sin or in the omission of any known duty that spirit convincing thee of thy sins Motives against this sin 1. Motives to close with the spirits conviction That in not complying with the spirits conviction thou opposest the spirit in its first werk tending to thy conversion upon thy soul The spirit convinceth before it converteth the spirit of bondage must go before the spirit of adoption The thundering and terrible voice of the Law before the sweet and the still voice of the Gospel the Arrows of the Almighty within thee make way for the sweet oyle of consolation in resisting the spirits interest in this work thou opposest thy own salvation 2. In opposing the light of the spirit by way of conviction upon thy soul thou wilt bring by little and little such a brawniness upon thy conscience such a hardness upon thy heart such a deadness upon thy affections such a customariness in sinning such an indisposition and averseness upon thy soul to any good thing that the meats of grace which should have been for the food of thy soul shall bâ—thy poyson every Ordinance unprofitable and thou shalt be a burden to the earth an abominable creature in the eyes of God the spirits quench-coal an utter enemy to all goodness and when thou comest to dye Magormishabib a terror and an astonishment unto thy self another Francis Spira another Judas another Saul when thou comest to lye upon thy death deb 3. This not walking up to the light of conviction will be an unconceiveable torment and vexation of spirit unto thee in the flames of hell fire When thou shalt have nothing to do else but to consider how foolishly how vainly thou didst spend this transitoty life in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and besides which will be the greatest misery when thou shalt with anguish of spirit and with gnashing of teeth consider that if thou hadst closed with such a spiritual truth committed unto thee in a Sermon perhaps the Minister beseeching thee inviteing exhorting thee perswading thee with tears in his eyes to leave thy beloved sins and to embrace Jesus Christ under the penalty of eternal condemnation and hadst complyed with the conviction of the spirit at such a time upon thy heart thou hadst escaped this place of torment All convictions impressions motions of the spirit which the damned souls have had in this life all powerful Sermons all opportunity for the advantages of their souls all good counsels exhortations beseechings of friends relations acquaintance all that progress which they have made in Christianity and that if they had gone but one step farther they might have obtained heaven if they had not loved this present world too much and with the young man in the Gospel loved their possessions above Christ they might have been while now they are in extream misery and when above all this the consideration of the spirits conviction how that they were convinced in their own consciences by the act of the spirit setting home this sin I say when all these means of grace advantage and precious opportunityes with superadded convictions shall be upon their spirits as then they shall be in a most eminent matter their affections being quickened and raised to the full vigor of them God is the immediate inflicter of the souls punishment in hell their memories strengthened their understandings enlarged and all their vain hopes and confidence ruined to their exceeding grief and misery they will weigh heavier then the sand of the Sea and did not infinite power support them under this unconceiveable torment as well as infinite justice inflict this torment by way of vengeance and in full fury upon them the damned spirits could not subsist one moment What language do you think you should hear supposing you were at hells gate Such as this O wretch that I am what a foolish silly wretch was I that I did neglect so great salvation that I did shift off the spirit striving and pleading with me from time to time convincing me of my sins saying to morrow and next day I will begin a new lesson I will redeem the time I will bethink me of eternity but this morrow never yet came till now it is too late time being swallowed up in this Ocean of eternity O what a sluggard was I to shift off the blessed spirit with such fond foolish and frivolous excuses to make every thing an objection and a doubt to keep me off from an obedience to the truth What a mad fellow was I to create fears where no fear was and to think that Gods wayes were full of bitterness and that pleasure of sin exceeding sweet to make offence and stumble at a crucified Christ to believe the divel to hearken to flesh and blood and to follow the course of this present evil world O that I had those opportunities and those precious means for the good of my soul again afforded me how would I live How would I walk up to that light which God hath
afforded me alwayes praying reading doing good and working out my salvation with fear and trembling But alas there is no more time there are no more seasons of grace afforded me God is departed from me in respect of any future mery for ever hell hath shut her mouth upon me and therefore O that I had to my everlasting comfort complyed and hearkened to the voice of the spirit contending with me That I had walked up to the light of the spirit then it had been otherwise with me to my perpetual joy then it is now to my eternal misery Thus the wretched sinner laments it self when it is too late and wishes it had never been unless he had been better because he improved not those talents and walked not up to that light which God had given him Reasons why every soul ought to walke up according to its Light 1. Because God judgeth every one according to his light Rom. 2.12 For as many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law that is those that are without the moral Law written upon tables of stone but have onely the Law of nature written upon their hearts though the moral Law is nothing but what is founded upon nature as appears in the 15. verse For the Gentiles which have not the Law i. e. the moral Law do by nature the things contained in the Law if they sin against the Law written in their consciences shall onely be judged according to that Law and those that have the moral Law shall be judged according to the moral Law but those who have the light of the Gospel shall be judged according to the light of the Gospel 16. v. In the day when God shal judge the secrets of mens hearts according to my Gospel And those that have sinned against the light of conviction and the strivings of the spirit shall be judged according to that light and according as our light is so will be our condemnation Mat. 11.22 It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement then for us who live under the light of the Gospel and the spirits convictions because our light is the greater And for those who live under Gospel light it will be more tolerable for those at the day of judgement who have lived under a powerful Ministery all their dayes and have had more influences of the spirit upon their hearts and have had the spiritual Manna continually falling round about their houses as the inhabitants of the famous City of London have who are blessed above all other Nations with spiritual blessings then those who are less watred with showers of Grace from heaven if they shall let slip their opportunities and sleep out the day of visitation which is afforded them The Lord takes notice of every Sermon we hear and of every prayer we have prayed of every time we have received the Sacrament of every impression we have had upon our spirits of all those counsels exhortations admonitions reproofs corrections instructions we have had of all that naturall knowledge we had with the improvements of it of all the prayers and beseechings others have made and put to God for us of all those secret checks of conscience of all those various acts of providence in the course of our lives marvellous deliverances from dangers from sicknesses from imprisonments in providing for us when all other helps and means have failed of all those resolutions we have made of better obedience upon some notable conviction upon our spirits of all our services performed unto him in private and in publick and of all that conference and communion we have had with the Saints of all that progress we have towards heaven and that if we had gone but a step or two further we might have been happy and according to the severall gradations of our spirituall advantages upon the neglect of them so shall our condemnation be God will judge us for every Sermon wherein we have not met him in a Sermon for every prayer wherein we have not met him in a prayer for every receiving of the Sacrament wherein we have not met Christ in that Sacrament We are then said to meet God in a duty when upon the right improvement of it God comes nigher to us in waies of further discoveries upon our hearts or our hearts are drawn nigher to God and to Jesus Christ in way of heavenly mindedness and son-like obedience 2. We ought to walk up to that light which we have because God hath to this end given this light unto us that our evil deeds being made manifest we may loath our selves for them and avoid them for the time to come Wicked men they hate the light Joh. 3.20 because their deeds are evil they know that it is the nature of light to make manifest and thereupon if they should come to the light their consciences would be awakened and the peace of their besotted spirits lul'd asleep in gross ignorance carnall security the pleasures of sinne and by the devil would be disturbed But the godly on the other side they rejoyce in the light in the light of the Word in the light of the Spirit and bless God for the time that ever they were acquainted with the evil nature of their sinnes and with the experience of Gods infinite goodness unto them in Jesus Christ A righteous man fears not the terrours of the Law 1 Tim. 1.9 for the Law was not made for him but for the rebellious disobedient murtherers of fathers and murtherers of mothers And he rejoyceth in the glad tidings of the Spirit He desires to be taught by the Spirit and daily to be nurtured up in the School of Christ till he shall come to the perfection of the Saints in glory He that doth truth cometh to the light Joh. 3.21 that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wronght in God 3. Because if a mans spirit gives him in that such a thing is a duty though it be nor or such a thing is a sinne though in it self it be not a sinne yet if he walk not up according to that verdict his conscience gives in of it unless the Word of God speaks directly against it and it be directly opposite to the analogy and proportion of faith he sinnes in not so doing Saith the Apostle Whatsoever is not of faith is sinne Rom. 14.23 that is whatsoever we do doubtingly and ambiguously being in distrust whether the thing ought to be done or no if we do it we sinne in so doing We should do nothing but what we verily believe ought to be done In these two cases we may follow the light of our own consciences 1. In things indifferent which are neither simply commanded nor simply for bidden 2. In things which do not positively contradict the doctrine of faith and piety and the express Word of God or a direct and an immediate consequence plain to the capacity of all understanding men void of any prejudice against the truth drawn from solid and evident places of Scripture pat to the purpose we have in hand But if any man shall pretend a Tenet or a Custom or a Doctrine to be received believed performed and practised because his own conscience gives him in it is so or ought to be believed and practised though he hath an express command to the contrary in Gods Word I say that this mans heart is full of Atheism and unbelief and grosly deluded by the devil and though his erroneous conscience gives him in it must be so yet he sinnes if he doth it because it is directly contrary to the Word of God Now if a man sinnes if he walks not up to the light of his conscience in some cases though it may be erroneous then much more he walks not up to the light of the Word and of the Spirit these are infallible lights without the least errour and deceit Lord God we beseech thee that seeing our hearts are so apt to deceive us and to be deceived the world to flatter us and the devil to beguile us and because we live in unstable times full of delusions wherein the mystery of iniquity begins to work and Satans agents are now transformed into Angels of light that our hearts might not be bewitched with these meer phantasmes and ghosts of piety with these shadows in stead of substance but give us that spirituall eye-salve whereby we may discern the cunning sleights of men who lye in wait to deceive and that Christian prudence to foresee the evils that are coming upon the earth Psal 43.3 Send forth thy light and thy truth we beseech thee thy light is a true light and thy truth is light that by thy light we may see light and by the teachings of thy Spirit upon our hearts we may be so established in the waies of God that neither the Errours Heresies and Blasphemies that are abroad in the world may taint us nor that desolation which is coming upon us for our sinnes unless they be washed away with the tears of repentance and with amendment of life may drive us from our hope and confidence of God but that patiently enduring the chastening of the Lord because we have sinned against him by that witnessing act of thy Spirit evidently teaching us that we are thy children in the midst of all these heart-quaking times we may rejoyce in the expectation of future happiness FINIS