A SERMON Preached at NEWPORT IN THE ISLE of WIGHT October 1648. In the time of the TREATY BY ROBERT SANDERSON D. D. Chaplain to the late KING and Regius-Professor of Divinity in the University of OXON. London Printed by T. M. for Andrew Crook at the Green Dragon in S. Pauls Church-yard 1653. A SERMON PREACHED In the Isle of WIGHT Before the late KING GALAT. 5. 22 23. Ver. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law HE that shall impartially look upon former and the present times shall find that of Salomon exactly true There is no new thing under the sun Vetus fabula novi Histriones The things we see done are but the same things that have been done onely acted over again by new Persons and with a few new circumstances It was in the Apostles times and in the Churches of Galatia even as it is with us in these dayes False Teachers had crept in among them who by their Hypocrisie and pretensions of the Spirit had so corrupted their Faith that they were removed after a sort unto another Gospel and so extremely sowred their Charity that from provoking and envying they were now grown to biting and devouring one another The Apostle wondering at this so unexpected a change I marvel you are so soon removed Gal. 1. 6. to see them so befooled in their understandings and bewitched in their affections as to suffer so sore and sudden a decay in the two most Essential parts of Christian Religion Faith and Charity thought it high time for him after he had first schooled them O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you to offer this advice towards the allaying of those heats and distempers that were the causes of this so sad and dangerous an alteration The Remedy he prescribeth for that end verse 16. is short but very sure if they will follow it Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh As if he had said You talk much of the Spirit but you make it little appear in the fruit of your lives that you are led by the Spirit The Spirit and the flesh are contraries and they lust contrary things verse 17. If you were as careful to walk in the Spirit as you are to boast of it you would not be so forward as now you are by the cherishing of unbrotherly contentions and other wayes to fulfil the Lusts of the flesh An hard thing it is to bring an overweening Hypocrite to a true understanding of himself for Pride and Hypocrisie are two such things as few men are willing to own That they might therefore with better certainty be able to discern whether they were indeed Spiritual or but yet carnal the Apostle proceedeth to describe the flesh and the Spirit by sundry their different effects A Catalogue we have for that purpose of the works of the flesh in seventeen particulars in the three next verses before the Text and then another Catalogue of the fruit of the Spirit in nine Particulars in the Text it self Wherein we may observe three things First the Notion or general Description of spiritual graces as they are here proposed they go under this name The fruit of the Spirit Secondly the particular species given in under that name or Notion They are these nine Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness and Temperance Thirdly a special Priviledge belonging to all and every the aforesaid particulars to wit exemption from the Law Against such there is no Law In the general Description which is like to be our onely business at this time the thing we are to take notice of is the difference that may be observed between the Titles under which Saint Paul hath entered the several particulars of both sorts as they are set down the one in the beginning of verse 19. The works of the flesh are manifest which are these Adultery c. The other in the beginning of verse 22. But the fruit of the spirit is Love c. And these differences are four First Those effects of the former sort proceed originally from the flesh these from the Spirit Secondly Those are rather styled by the name of Works these by the name of Fruit The Works of the flesh but the Fruit of the Spirit Thirdly Those are set forth as many and apart Works in the Plural these as many but united into one Fruit in the Singular Fourthly Those are expresly said to be manifest of these no such thing at all mentioned The first difference which ariseth from the nature of the things themselves as they relate to their several proper causes is of the four the most obvious and important and it is this That whereas the vicious habits and sinful actions Catalogued in the former verses are the productions of the flesh The graces and vertues specified in the Text are ascribed to the Spirit as to their proper and Original cause they are not the Works of the flesh as the former but the Fruit of the Spirit Where the first question that every man will be ready to ask is What is here meant by the Spirit The necessity of expressing Supernatural and Divine things by words taken from Natural or Humane affairs hath produced another necessity of enlarging the significations of sundry of those words to a very great latitude which is one special cause of the obscurity which is found in sundry places of Holy Scripture and consequently of the difficulty of giving the proper and genuine sense of such places and consequently to that amidst so many interpretations of one and the same place whâ—lst each contendeth for that sense which himself hath pitched upon of infinite Disputes and Controversies in point of Religion Among which words three especially I have observed all of them of very frequent use in the New Testament which as they are subject to greater variety of significations than most other words are so have they ever yet been and are like to be to the worlds end the matter and fuel of very many and very fiery contentions in the Church These three are Faith Grace and Spirit Truly I am perswaded if it were possible all men could agree in what signification each of these three words were to be understood in each place where any of them are found three full parts at least of the four of those unhappy Controversies that have been held up in the Christian Church would vanish And of the three this of the Spirit hath yet the greatest variety of significations God in his Essence the Person of the Holy Ghost good Angels evil Angels extraordinary Gifts wherewith the Apostles and others in the Primitive times were endowed the several faculties of the soul as understanding affections and conscience the whole soul of man Supernatural grace besides many others not needful now to be remembred all come under the appellation of Spirit
do his part too in giving theincrease and Crowning our endeavors with success Secondly a duty of thankfulness If by this good blessing upon our Prayers and endeavors we have been enabled to bring forth any fruit such as he will graciously accept take we heed we do not withdraw the least part of the glory of it from him to derive it upon our selves or our own endeavors Non nobis Domine non nobis Not unto us O Lord by no means to us but to thy Name be the glory Enough it is for us i◠we have the comfort inward and shall have an immeasurable reward at the last for the good we have done either of both which is infinitely more then we deserve but far be it from us to claim any share in the glory let all that be to him alone Whatsoever fruit therefore we bear or how much soever let us not be high minded thereupon or take too much upon us for we bear not the Root but the Root beareth us and when we have done our outmost endeavors the fruit we bear is still the fruit of the Spirit and not the fruit of our endeavors I have dwelt long upon this first difference not so much because it was the first though that sometimes falleth out to be the best excuse we are able to make for such prolixities as because it is most material as arising from the different nature of the things spoken of whereas the three that follow are rather verbal arising but from the different manner of the Apostles expressions in respect of the words The first whereof the 2d of the whole four is That the evil effects proceeding from the flesh are called by the name of works and the good effects proceeding from the Spirit are called by the name of fruits The Quere is Why those these being both effects alike they are not either both alike called works or both alike called fruits but the one works the other fruits The works of the flesh there here the fruit of the Spirit For answer whereunto I shall propose to your choyce two conjectures the one more Theological which is almost as new to me as perhaps it will seem to you for it came not into my thoughts till I was upon it the other more Moral and Popular For the former take it thus Where the immediate Agent produceth a work or effect virtute propriâ by his own power and not in the vertue of a superior Agent both the work it self produced and the efficacy of the operation whereby it is produced are to be ascribed to him alone so as it may be said properly precisely to be his work But where the immediate Agent operateth virtute alienâ in the strength and vertue of some higher Agent without wch he were not able to produce the effect though the work done may even there also be attributed in some sort to the inferior and subordinate Agent as the immediate cause yet the efficacy wherby it was wrought cannot so properly be imputed to him but ought rather to be ascribed to that higher Agent in whose vertue he did operate The Application will make it somewhat plainer In all humane actions whether good or bad the will of man is the immediate Agent so that whether we commit a sin or do a good work inasmuch as it proceedeth from our free wills the work is still our work howsoever But herein is the difference between good and evil actions The Will which is naturally in this depraved estate corrupt and fleshly operateth by its own power alone for the producing of a sinful action without any co-operation at all as was said already of God or his Holy Spirit and therefore the sin so produced is to be ascribed to the fleshly Will as to the sole and proper Cause thereof and may therefore very rightly be said to be the work of the flesh But in the producing any action that is spiritually good the Will operateth onely as a subordinate Agent to the grace of the Holy Spirit and in the power and vertue thereof And therefore although the good work may in some sort be said to be our work because immediately produced by our Wills yet it is in truth the fruit of the Spirit and not of our Wills because it is wrought by the power of that and not by any power of our own Wills Nevertheless not I but the grace of God with me If this conjecture seem but a subtilty and satisfie not let it go the other I presume wil being it is so plain and popular The word fruit most-what relateth to some labour going before Hoc fructi ab labore pro his fero in the old Poet So in the Scriptures Nevertheless this is the fruit of my labour The Husbandman that first laboureth must be partaker of the fruits Labour first and then fruits That which David calleth the labour of the hands Thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands Psal. 128. Solomon calleth the fruit of the hands Give her of the fruit of her hands Prov. 31. The reason is because no man would willingly undergo any toyl or labour to no end he would have something or other in his eye that might in some measure recompence his pains and that is called the fruit of his labour Tully therefore joyneth Praemium and Fructum together as importing the same thing Who planteth a Vineyard but in hope to eat of the fruit of it Or what Husbandman would Plow and Sow and Plant and Prune and Dig and Dung if he did not hope to find it all answered again when he cometh to Inne the fruits Spe fructûs dura ferentes The first question in every mans thoughts when he is importuned to any thing of labour and business is Ecquid erit pretii will it be worth my labour what benefit shal I reap by it what wil be the fruit of my pains In all deliberations where two wayes are offered to our choice Wisdom would that we should first weigh as advisedly and exactly as we can the labour and the fruit of the one against the other and as we find those rightly compared to be more or less to make our resolutions accordingly We are called on hard on both sides God commandeth us to serve him Satan and the World sollicite us to the service of sin Promises there are or intimations of fruit on both sides Salvation to our souls on the one side Satisfaction to our lusts on the other Here then is our business and our wisdom to compare what is required and what is offered on both sides to examine on the one side first and then on the other whether the work exceed the fruit or the fruit the work Now the Apostle by the very choice of his words here hath after a sort done the business and determined the controversie to our hands In the service of sin the toyl is so great that in comparison thereof the
benefit is as nothing and in the service of God the benefit so great that in comparison thereof the pain is as nothing Where the flesh ruleth all the work exceedeth the fruit and therefore without ever mentioning the fruit they are called the works of the flesh But where the Spirit of God ruleth the fruit exceedeth the work and therefore without ever mentioning the work it is called the fruit of the Spirit If in this passage onely this different manner of speaking had been used by the Apostle it might perhaps have been taken for a casual expression unsufficient to ground any Collection upon But look into Ephes. 5. and you cannot doubt but it was done of choice and with this very meaning speaking there of the duties of Holiness even as here without any mention of work he calleth them by the name of fruits The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth verse 9. But by and by verse 11. speaking of sinful actions he doth not onely call them works but positively and expresly calleth them fruitless Have no fellowship with the unfruitfull works of Darknesse Works but without fruit unfruitfull works of darknesse This justifieth the Collection to be evident and naturall and without enforcement The waies of sin are very toilsome yet withall unfruitfull but in all spirituall labour there is profit the fruit wil countervail the paines and recompence it abundantly We may not unfitly apply to these two his words in the Comedy In his fructus est in illis Opera luditur The paths of sin seem indeed at the first hand and in the entrance to be very pleasant and even The Divel to draw men in goeth before like a Leveller and smootheth the way for them but when they are in he driveth them along and on they must Be the way never so dark and slippery never so crooked and craggy never so intricate or perplext being once engaged they must go through it per saxa per ignes stick at nothing be it never so contrary to the Laws of God or men to all Natural Civil or Religious Obligations yea even to the Principles of common humanity and reason that Avarice Ambition Revenge or any other vitious Lust putteth them upon Ambulavimus vias difficiles they confess it at last when it is too late and befool themselves for it We have wearied our selves in the way of wickedness and destruction we have gone through dangerous waies c. Wisd. 5. They have wearied themselves to work iniquity saith the Prophet Jeremiah And the Prophet Habbacuk The people labour in the very fire The Greek word that signifieth wickedness cometh of another that signifieth labour {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And how often in the Scriptures do we meet with such like Phrases asthese to work wickedness works of iniquity Saint Chrysostomes eloquence inlargeth it self and triumpheth in this Argument more frequently and with greater variety of invention and amplification then in almost any other and he cleareth it often and beyond all exception both by Scripture and Reason that the life of a wicked or worldly man is a very drudgery infinitely more toylsome vexatious and unpleasant then a Godly life is Now if after all this drayling the fruits would though but in a scant proportion answer the pains it were the more tolerable but there is no such matter the sinner hath but his Labour for his Pains Nay I may say it were happy for him if he had but his Labour for his Pains and that there were not a worse matter yet behind The best they can hope in the mean time is nothing but vanity and vanity is nothing Man walketh in a vain shadow and disquieteth himself in vain saith David The work disquietness the fruit vanity The people labour in the very fire you heard but now from the Prophet his very next words are They weary themselves for very vanity Saint Peter therefore calleth the conversation of a sinner a vain conversation And S. Paul putteth the question home to their consciences after a sort challenging them to answer directly to it if they could What fruit had ye then of those things c. Rom. 6. No great reason then if we well consider it why we should envy sinners though they prosper never so much in wicked designes and seem to reap the fruit of their labours in the success of their affairs All temporal advantages of Wealth Honour Power Pleasure and the like which are the utmost fruit that a sinner can fancy to himself of all his labours have but the shew and semblance not the truth and reality of fruit both because in the mean time they give not that satisfaction in the injoyment which was desired and expected from them in the pursuit as they write of the Apples of Sodom that look very fair and full and tempt the eye but as soon as touched Fathiscunt in vagum pulverem like a Fussbal resolve all into dust and smoak as also because they have a very ill farewel with them at the last Honey in the mouth perhaps and that but perhaps neither but Gall certainly in the stomack if not rather rank Poyson Know they not it will be bitterness in the end Shame Sorrow and bitter repentance and that is the best end imaginable of such bad beginnings but without repentance eternal death and damnation not to be avoided For the end of those things abused and continued in is death Let us not therefore either envy their prosperity or yet follow their example Wherefore should we lay out our money for that which is not bread or our labour for that which satisfieth not when we drive a far easier trade with far more profit another way have less toyl and yet reap more fruit and that is by walking in the holy wayes of God and taking upon us the yoke of Christ that we are told is an easie yoke at least in comparison of the other that of Satan and a light burden And we have no reason to disbelieve it Truth it self having told us so especially considering that he putteth under the shoulder himself also and by helping to bear with us beareth off in a manner the whole weight from us leaving no more for us to carry then by the strength he giveth us he knoweth we are well able to bear if we will but put to our good wils and use that strength Nay do but compare the works themselves and you must conclude that his Commandments are more equitable and less grievous then are the imperious commands of our own raging and exorbitant lusts Will not any reasonable man upon the hearing of the names of the things onely presently yeild that Love and Joy and Peace and Gentleness for example which are fruits of the Spirit are far more lovely and desirable more easie and delightful fuller of sweetness and
Much of the ambiguity of the word I confess is cut off when it is opposed to flesh yet even then also it wanteth no varietie The literal and mystical sense the Ordinances of the old and new Testament the body and the soul sensuality and reason the corruption of nature and the grace of God all these may according to the peculiar exigence of several places be understood by the termes of Flesh and Spirit Generally the word Spirit in the common notion of it importeth a thing of subtile parts but of an operative qualitie so that the less any thing hath of matter and the more of vertue the nearer it cometh to the nature of a Spirit as the Wind and the quint-essences of Vegetables or Minerals extracted by Chymical operations We use to say of a man that is of a sad sluggish and flegmatick temper that he hath no spirit but if he be lively active quick and vigorous we then say he hath a spirit in him It is said of the Queen of Sheba when she saw the Wisdom and Royal state of King Salomon that there was no more spirit left in her that is she stood mute and amazed at it as if she had no life speech sense or motion in her the soul is therefore call'd a spirit because it being it self no bodily substance it yet actuateth and enliveneth the body and is the inward Principle of life thereunto called therefore The spirit of life And Saint James saith The body without the spirit is dead that is it is a liveless lump of flesh without the soul So that whatsoever is Principium agendi internum may in that respect and so far forth borrow the name of a spirit insomuch as the very flesh it self so far forth as it is the fountain of all those evil works mentioned in the fore-going verses may in that respect be called a spirit and so it is by Saint James The spirit that is in us lusteth after envy saith he that is in very deed the flesh that is in us for among the lusts and works of the flesh is envie reckoned in the very next verse before the Text To come up close to the point for I fear I have kept off too long as they stand here opposed By Flesh I take to be clearly meant the natural corruption of man And by Spirit the Supernatural grace of God even as the same words are also taken in some other places as namely in that saying of our Saviour John 3. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Which words may serve as a good Commentary upon this part of the Text for they do not only warrant the Interpretation but afford us also the Reason of it under the Analogie of a twofold Birth or Generation The Generation whether of Plants or living Creatures is effectual by that prolifical vertue which is in the Seed Answerable therefore unto the twofold Birth spoken of in the Scriptures there is also a twofold Seed The first Birth is that of the old man by Natural Generation whereby we are born the sons of Adam The second Birth is that of the new man by Spiritual Regeneration by which we are born the sons of God Answerable whereunto the first Seed is Semen Adae the seed of Adam derived unto us by carnal Propagation from our natural Parents who are therefore called The fathers of our flesh together wherewith is also derived that uncleanness or corruption which upon our first Birth cleaveth so inseparably to our nature and is the inward Principle from which all the works of the flesh have their emanation But then there is another Seed Semen Dei as S. John cals it the seed of the second Adam Jesus Christ God blessed for ever derived unto us by the communication of the Holy Spirit inwardly renewing us together wherewith is also derived a measure of inherent supernatural grace as the inward Principle whence all these choyce fruits of the Spirit do flow So that upon the whole matter these two points are clear First clear it is that all the wicked practices recited and condemned in the fore-going verses with all other of like quality do proceed meerly from the corruption that is in us from our own depraved minds and wils without any the least co-operation of the Holy Spirit of God therein It cannot stand with the goodness of God to be the Principal and neither with his goodness nor greatness to be an Accessory in any sinful action He cannot be either the Author or the Abettor of any thing that is evil Whoso therefore hath committed any sin let him take heed he do not add another and a worse to it by charging God with it rather let him give God and his Spirit the glory by taking all the blame and shame of it to himself and his own flesh All sinful works are works of the flesh Secondly It is clear also that all the holy affections and performances here mentioned with all other Christian vertues and graces accompanying salvation not here mentioned though wrought immediately by us and with the free consent of our wils are yet the fruit of Gods Spirit working in us that is to say they do not proceed Originally from any strength of nature or any inherent power in mans free will nor are they acquired by the culture of Philosophy the advantages of Education or any improvement whatsoever of natural abilities by the helps of Art or Industry but are in truth the proper effects of that supernatural grace which is given unto us by the good pleasure of God the Father merited for us by the precious blood of God the Son and conveyed into our hearts by the sweet and secret inspiration of God the Holy Ghost Love Joy Peace c. are fruits not at all of the Flesh but meerly and entirely of the Spirit All those very many passages in the new Testament which either set forth the unframableness of our nature to the doing of any thing that is good Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think a good thought In me that is in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing and the like or else ascribe our best performance to the glory of the grace of God Without me you can do nothing All our sufficiency is of God Not of our selves it is the gift of God It is God that worketh in you both the will and the deed and the like are so many clear confirmations of this truth Upon the evidence of which truth it is that our Mother the Church hath taught us in the Publick Service to beg at the hands of Almighty God that he would indue us with the grace of his Holy Spirit to amend our lives according to his holy Word and again consonantly to the matter we are now in hand with almost in terminis that he would give to all men increase of grace to
hear meekly his Word and to receive it with pure affection and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit as without which grace it were not possible for us to amend our lives or to bring forth such fruits according as God requireth in his holy Word And the Reason is clear because as the Tree is such must the fruit be Do men look to gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles or can they expect from a salt Fountain other then brackish water certainly what is born of flesh can be no better then flesh Who can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean or how can any thing that good is proceed from a heart all the imaginations of the thoughts whereof are onely and continually evil If we would have the fruit good reason will and our Saviour prescribeth the same Method that order be taken first to make the Tree good But you will say it is as impossible so to alter the nature of the flesh as to make it bring forth good Spiritual fruit as it is to alter the nature of a Crab or Thorn so as to make it bring forth a pleasant Apple Truly and so it is If you shall endeavor to mend the fruit by altering the stock you shall find your labour altogether fruitless A Crab will be a Crab still when you have done what you can and you may as well hope to wash an Aethiopian white as to purge the flesh from sinful pollution The work therefore must be done quite another way not by alteration but by addition that is leaving the old Principle to remain as it was by super-inducing ab extra a new Principle of a different and more kindly qualitie We see the experiment daily in the grafting of Trees A Crab-stock if it have a cyon of some delicate Apple is artificially grafted in it look what branches are suffered to grow out of the stock it self they will all follow the nature of the stock and if they bring forth any fruit at all it will be sowr and styptick but the fruit that groweth from the graft will be pleasant to the taste because it followeth to the nature of the graft We read of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} An engrafted word James 1. Our carnal hearts are the old stock which before the word of God be grafted in it cannot bring forth any Spiritual fruit acceptable to God but when by the powerful operation of his holy Spirit the word which we hear with our outward ears is inwardly grafted therein it then bringeth forth the fruits of good living so that all the bad fruits that appear in our lives come from the old stock the flesh and if there be any good fruit of the Spirit in us it is from the vertue of that word of grace that is grafted in us It should be our care then since the Scriptures call so hard upon us for fruits To be fruitful in good works to bring forth fruits meet for repentance c. and threaten us with excision and fire if we do not bring forth fruit and that good fruit too It should be our care I say to bestow as much diligence about our hearts as good husbands do about their fruit-trees they will not Suffer any sucker or luxuriant branches to grow from the stock but assoon as they begin to appear or at least before they come to any bigness cut them off and cast them away by so doing the graft thrives the better and brings forth fruit both sooner and fairer God hath intrusted us with the custody and culture of our own hearts as Adam was put into the Garden to keep it and to dress it and besides the charge given us in that behalf it behoveth us much for our own good to keep them with all diligence if we husband them well the benefit will be ours he looketh for no more but his Rent and that an easie Rent the glory and the thanks the fruits wholly accrue to us as usu-fructuaries but if we be such ill husbands so careless and improvident as to let them sylvescere overgrow with wild and superfluous branches to hinder the thriving of the grafts whereby they become ill-liking and unfruitful we shall neither answer the trust committed to us nor be able to pay our Rent we shall bring him in no glory nor do our selves any good but run behind hand continually and come to nought at last It will behove us therefore if we will have our fruit in holiness and the end everlasting life to look to it betimes lest some root of bitterness springing up put us to more trouble then we are aware of for the present or can be well able to deal withal afterwards The flesh will find us work enough to be sure it is ever and anon putting forth spurns of Avarice Ambition Envy Revenge Pride Luxury some noysome lust or other Like a rotten Dunghil that 's rank of weeds if we neglect them but a little out of a thought that they can do no great harm yet or that we shall have time enough to snub them hereafter we do it to our own certain disadvantage if not utter undoing we shal either never be able to overcome them or not without very much more labour and difficulty then we might have done it at the first In the mean time whilst these superfluous excrescencies {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I know not how to call them are suffered they draw away the sap to their own nourishment and so pine and starve the grafts that they never come to good {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith S. James we 'l translate it Wherefore laying aside perhaps it may import a little more the whole verse is worth the further considering if we had time to insist upon it it seemeth to allude throughout to the lopping off all those suckers or superfluous branches that hinder the prospering of Grafts as if he had said If you desire the holy word of God which is to be grafted in your hearts should bring forth fruit to the saving of your souls suffer not these filthy and naughty superfluities of fleshly lusts to hinder the growth thereof but off with them away with them and the sooner the better that is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I should from this point before I had left it but that I have other things to speak to and may not insist have pressed two things more First the necessity of our Prayers It is true our endeavors are necessary God that doth our work for us will not do it without us but without the assistance of his holy Spirit all our endeavors are bootless and we have no reason to presume of his assistance if we think our selves too good to ask it We may not think we have done all our part toward fruit-bearing when we have planted and watered until we have earnestly sollicited him to
calmness less toylsom and vexatious then are Hatreds and Debates and Emulations and Seditions and Murthers and those other works of the flesh Now if as the task is easier so the benefit be greater what can excuse our folly if we do not give up our selves to be ordered by the guidance of the Spirit in every thing rather then yield to satisfie the lusts of the flesh in any thing And the benefit is greater A sure reward saith Solomon For God is not unrighteous to forget your labour of faith and love A great reward saith David and that many times for a very little work done the giving of a Cup of cold Water to refresh a thirsty soul shall not want its reward It is our Apostles elsewhere that we should alwaies abound in the work of the Lord and that upon this very ground forasmuch as you know saith he that your labour is not in vain in the Lord If we labour in his work we shall find the fruit of it in time Onely let us be content to stay the time and not be thrusting in the Sickle before the Corn be half ripe The Husbandman when he hath done his work in earing and sowing doth not look to receive the precious fruits of the earth into his Garners again the next day or the next month but he hath long patience for it and whether it chance to be an early Harvest or a late Harvest he waiteth still and taketh the season as it falleth Even so have we need of Patience that after we have done the will of God and suffered according to the will of God we may receive the promised reward for in due time we shall reap if we faint not The final reward is sure veniens veniet it will come at last and not fail us and it is so great withal Copiosa nimis that when it cometh it will abundantly recompence all our Work yea and our Patience too Nay let me say if that reward were not nor any other world to come yet the fruits we reap in the mean time even in this world from a godly life is incomparably greater then any that the works of the flesh can yeild us even in the judgment of Heathen men Vertue ever carrieth its reward with it as being Bonum propter se expetendum a thing to be desired and imbraced for its own worth without respect to any further reward and certainly the evenness of the mind and vacuity from those secret lashes those horrors and fears that haunt a guilty conscience and the sweet comfort and complacency that a righteous soul findeth in the sincere performance of his bounden duty to God and man in eschuing evil and doing good is a fruit infinitely more valuable then all the pleasures and sensualities of a wicked life How happy then is he that truly serveth God who both hath his Fruit in holiness onward that is the hundred fold Mark 10. and shall in the end have everlasting life to boot There are of the four Differences proposed two more yet behind which I must dispatch in few words The 3d is That the works of the flesh are spoken of as many {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} works in the Plural but the fruit of the Spirit is spoken of as one {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Fruit in the singular many works but one fruit There is such a connexion of Vertues and Graces that albeit they differ in their Objects and natures yet they are inseparable in the Subject As when many links make up one chain pull one and pull all So he that hath any one Spiritual Grace in any degree of truth and eminency cannot be utterly destitute of any other But as for sin and Vices it is not so with them they are not only distinct in their kinds natures and definitions for so are Vertues too but they may also be divided from one another and parted asunder in respect of the Subject wherein they are We are told Rom. 2. and if we were not told it we could not but see reason enough otherwise to believe it that a man may hate Idolatry a work of the flesh and yet love Sacriledge well enough a work of the flesh too There is no necessity that a swearer should be an Adulterer or an Adulterer a slanderer or a slanderer an oppessor or an oppressor a drunkard or a drunkard a seditious person and so of many other The reason of the difference is because all spiritual graces look one way they all runne to the same indivisible point wherein they concenter to wit Almighty God who is Bonum Incommunicabile unchangeable and one even as all moral vertues concenter in the same common point of Right Reason But sins which turn from God to follow the Creature and vices which are so many deviations from the rule of Right Reason do not only necessarily run towards the same point but may have their several tendencies different one from another Because though God be one yet the creatures are manifold and although the strait way from one place to another can be but one yet there may be many crooked turnings by-paths and deviations Even as Truth is but one and certain but Errors are manifold and endless The Spirit of God whose fruits these are is first a renewing Spirit It createth a new heart in a man wherby hee becometh a kind of new creature it disposeth him to obedience And true obedience is copulative it submitteth to the Commanders wil entirely it doth not pick and choose The Spirit of God is secondly a holy Spirit The holy Spirit of Discipline And such a holy Spirit wil not brook to dwel in a soul that is subject to sin it wil endure no such inmate they can no more dwell together then light can fellow with darknesse but where any grace is wanting there must needs be the contrary sin to fill up the vacuity And therefore where that holy Spirit is there cannot be a total defect of any holy grace The spirit of God is also a loving Spirit and sheddeth abroad the love of God in every heart it taketh possession of and love is so comprehensive a grace that it includeth all the rest and so is in effect the fulfulling of the whole Law There is a thred of love that runneth through all the particular duties and offices of Christian life and stringeth them like so many rich Pearles into one chain See 1 Cor. 13. throughout A Confideration not unuseful to quicken our care for the subduing of every sinfull lust and our endeavour to have every grace of the Spirit habituated in us knowing that so long as we allow our selves in any one sin suffer any one lust of the flesh to remain in us unsubdued at least in respect of desire and endeavor there cannot be any one true grace of God in us There are certain common graces of Illumination which are the