greatest concernment as that instanced in here Knowing the Lord that is with a practicall knowledge such as changes the heart and converts is so much the work of God himself and of the holy spirit as of the principall and chiefe agent that the subordinate instruments who contribute under God by the will and institution of God to that work are scarce considerable It is well knowne this being the promise of the New Covenant the time of opening and beginning of which was after the death and resurrection of Christ as Heb. 8. Christ became the mediator of a better Covenant It is knowne I say that in those times in the course of which we live there was the institution of Apostles Prophets Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Ephes 4. and 2 Tim. 4.2 Paul commanded him there To preach the Word and to be instant in season and out of season and Rom. 10. How shall they beleeve in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they heare without a preacher so that gifts and Offices and teaching were judged by the holy Ghost extreame necessaries to faith holinesse and the right knowledge of God in Christ This notwithstanding in respect of that great part the holy spirit acts the agency and working of men deserves scarce a thought or mention so as on that consideration it may be sayd not to be And it is not unusuall as elsewhere so in Scripture phrase that that should be affirmed of one and denâ—ed of others which more illustriously or more frequently appeares in that one though in some sort it be common with others It is certaine Isaack loved Jacob and Esau too but because he more loved Esau it s sayd Isaack loved Esau and Rebecca loved Jacob Gen. 25.28 And though Christ loved all the Disciples it is said notwithstanding that John was the Disciple whom Jesus loved But especially that place of Matth. 15. where Christ sayes He was not sent but to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel and yet if Christ were not sent as well to the Gentiles as to the Jewes it were little for our comfort The preaching of the Word how necessary soever to the begetting of faith for how can they beleeve in him on whom they have not heard and how can they heare without a Preacher yet how little doth it contribute and how truely may so great an effect be sayd to bee alone from God What can the sound of words doe but strike the eare but it is the unction that must affect the heart 'T is not the noyse of a voice without but something within that produces such great and mighty effects The great weight that turnes the ballance and that ignea vis that fire that inflames the mind and carryes it up to God to move after God to follow God is some greater and higher thing then the voyce of man or sound of words and is nothing else but the unction within us and the voyce of God himselfe In a word it is the effect of that which is here and more particularly in Isaiah promised That they should be all taught of God which place as it is expounded and applyed by our Saviour the best Expositor will give the surest witnesse to the exposition we have given of this The place is John 13.45 It is written in the Prophets they shall be all taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me Our Saviour seemes to have respect to the place we have been speaking of all this while where God undertakes to do so much as he makes the Ministry of man in comparison nothing or more especially to that place in Isaiah 54.13 where the Prophet speaking of the restauration of the Church affirmes that their Children shall bee taught of God Now when our Saviour comes to apply and improve this passage of the Prophet doth he reject the Ministry of man as a thing of no use altogether carnall and unprofitable Doth he reprobate Preaching Exhortation and Doctrine No such thing He himselfe Preach't that hee was the Messiah that was to come and he sent our Apostles and Disciples to Teach and Baptize promising great rewards to those that shall not onely prophesie but shall receive a Prophet in his Name so farre was hee from abolishing the use of the Ministry or the Agency or assistance of men in that great worke of begetting and improving faith but tells the Jewes to whom he spake and who were offended with him for the meannesse of his birth and condition that the reason why they beleeved not was because they fell not under that great promise To be taught of God That no man could come to him except the Father drew him That teaching of God was especially necessary and that drawing of God that secret language and those invisible Cords without which all the words of man no of the man Jesus would doe no good nor contribute effectually to so great and high an end as comming to Jesus Christ and beleeving in him So as cleerly the use of this and other Scriptures of this kind is farre from excluding the Ministry of man and the use of the Scriptures and other Ordinances which the wisedome of God in the dayes of this new Covenant hath made extreamely necessary and usefull to us but to shew us where we must expect the Energy force and power which as an infusion into these Ordinances must produce these blessed effects and to give us an account of the difference that is found amongst men under the same Ordinances and dispensations that some come to God in Christ and forsake all things for him and others lye still dead in their sinnes for want of this Unction this being taught of God and of this strong and powerfull drawing which our Saviour speaks of in this place Having spoken that which is sufficient to the places last treated on I come now to that which I first propounded out of 2 Pet. 1.19 but this yet wee have gained already if wee assent to the expositions given that the highest teachings we are capable of in this life the teachings of God and of the anointings of the spirit are nothing of Supersedeas to the teachings of others or to our owne reading and meditation in the Word of God So as according to the truth already made out this Scripture will receive the easier accommodation First It is generally believed that those two Epistles were written to the Jewes of whom Peter was more particularly the Minister and the Apostle that this second Epistle was writ to the same persons to whom the first was appeares by the first Verse of the third Chapter This second Epistle beloved I now write unto you c. Now the first Epistle is intituled To the Strangers scattered abroad which James in his inscription calls The twelve Tribes scattered abroad James
his season Why not here he shall baptize for hee doth baptize that is hath this worke or office to baptize with the spirit Besides John 1.33 yee have it in the Present Tense affirmed of Christ This is he that Baptizeth with the holy Ghost Ob. But then it is told us out of Acts 1.4 5. he commanded them they should waite for the promise of the Father For John Baptized with water but yee shall be baptized with the holy Ghost not many dayes hence according to what John sayes of himselfe I Baptize you with water but hee shall Baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire Therefore Johns baptisme was the baptisme of water and Christs the baptisme of the spirit and so not one but severall baptismes Answ Answer I doe not speake still of the efficacy of baptisme but of the Ceremony or Element It is certaine that here is not a distinction of baptismes but of Baptizers I Baptize you with water but he shall baptize you with the holy Ghost Therefore when John sayes I Baptize you with water hee doth not handle that point what his baptisme was but what hee was himselfe to the end that they should not attribute to him that which was proper to Christ for so ye have it Matth. 3.11 Hee that commeth after me is mightier then I whose shooes I am not worthy to loose he shall Baptize with the holy Ghost and with fire So here yee have what is the vertue of John or of the Minister in baptizing and what of Christ This distinction is common to the New Testament and runnes through the whole course of the Ministry I have planted Apollo watered but God gave the increase No Minister ever gave the holy Ghost ever baptized with the holy Ghost and fire that was Christs part So as when ever baptisme is administred the Power and Ministry are to bee distinguished The Power is Christs the Ministry Johns or any other man qualifyed for it The baptisme of the Minister is externall conferring but the signe that of Christ internall conferring the thing signifyed and because John who had so great an opinion amongst the Apostles was to decrease and our Lord to increase therefore Christ instances in him in this place of the first of the Acts in opposition to his part in the Ministry But last of all I aske any man whether men were not baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire before that time for first the Apostles were baptized with the holy Ghost before that the Saints and Beleevers were sanctifyed and regenerated and made holy before then which is all these men would have to be that Ordinance so as things were not annexed and affixed to that famous sending downe of the holy Ghost in the shape of fiery tongues but was before long during all the course of the administration of baptisme though perhaps not with that efficacy and fulnesse and glory as after for so it is true that the holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet gloryfied So as clearly this place of the Acts holds out the excellency and glory of Christs administration in respect of all under-Ministers and particularly in respect of John who being the first Minister of baptisme had a peculiar honour from it and the whole Church here was spiritually baptized as in a type the Apostles receiving eminently the holy Ghost not for themselves but for the Churches This extraordinary administration Luke as Calvin observes improperly that is out of the ordinary signification calls Baptisme for baptisme properly signifies Immersion to the end that the Antithesis and opposition between Christ and John might bee intyre by the same reason as Paul after hee had mentioned the Law of workes to the end that the Antithesis might lye on both sides faith The Law of Faith Rom. 3.27 After this wee have a new Interpretation framed upon Acts 19. where we are made beleeve that those twelve Disciples found to be baptized onely by Johns baptisme were baptized againe in the name of Christ and this baptisme into the Name of Christ he sayes was not the repeating of any water but meerely the gift of the spirit This as the rest is boldly affirmed but where lyes his proofe or how doth hee make it out It is most probable as it hath beene taken by all to this day that if this were another baptisme or a repetition of baptisme it was by water as well as in severall other places in the Acts where any are sayd to be baptized hee himselfe understands it by water why not as well here But truely I am of opinion with those that thinke that Paul did not here command any to bee baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus which were already baptized with the baptisme of John but rather taught that those who had received Johns baptisme were rightly baptized into Christ and therefore had no need of any new or other baptisme It is very probable notwithstanding that from this place did either arise or was confirmed in many the opinion of the difference of these two baptismes of John and Christ though as it is now stated to us by our namelesse Author hee for any thing I shall say to the contrary shall have the honour of the novelty of it But to consider the place a little particularly Paul being come to Ephesus found certaine Disciples which afterwards Ver. 7. are sayd to be about twelve he presently askes them if they had received the holy Ghost since they beleeved The sense must certainely be as it will appeare by what followes have yee received the gifts of the holy Ghost which ordinarily accompanied faith and baptisme in those dayes according to that in the Acts Repent and bee Baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus which our Author will not deny I suppose to bee administred by water and yee shall receive the gifts of the holy Ghost and according to that Gal. 3.2 Received you the spirit by the workes of the Law or by the bearing of Faith also Verse 5. He that ministreth the spirit and worketh miracles among you where they are joyned together as things of a kind Besides being Christians and having beleeved they could not want the spirit of God regenerating and sanctifying for no man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the spirit therefore it must needs be meant of those extraordinary gifts which were peculiar to those times as an effect of beleeving and baptizing and yet not common to all They answered simply as the thing was and particularly to his question that they had not so much as heard whether there were an holy Ghost or no. The sense whereof must cleerly be that they were ignorant of the holy Ghost or knew not whether there were any such thing or no to wit as he was then visible or exhibited to beleevers in miraculous and extraordinary gifts for else being Christians they felt the power of the holy Ghost and being Jewes as they
Christ would convince the Sadduces of the Resurrection he told them They erred not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God Matth. 22.29 and then makes out his assertion by Scripture authority Have yee not read that which was spoken by God unto you And then brings them the very Scripture words I am the God of Abraham c. vers 32. So when Christ would prove himself to be the Messiah he bids them Search the Scriptures John 5.39 You see therefore it is no disparagement to the spirit of God that there is a visible Standard and Rule manifest to all men to which we may have a constant and easie recourse in any doubt or controversie of faith or worship Obj. If any shal object further that though this be not a disparagement or a lessening to the spirit of GOD since the authority of God it selfe and the reason of the thing seems to vindicate it from this Yet the Scriptures are capable of senses and interpretations so various as we see in all experience as it will be difficult to make it a Sandard and Rule of Faith and Worship or a Medium to try the spirits by since it needs the assistance of the spirit to the right interpretation of it selfe Ans I answer that the ignorance or perversnesse of Interpreters can by no meanes take away that Honour from the Scriptures that it should not be the Standard and Rule in things spirituall no more then in civill things the ignorance or peruersenesse of a man in giving the interpretations of the Law should detract from the honour of its being the rule and standard of judging in things civill It is certaine that in respect of the things spoken or in respect of the Speaker the Scripture hath not various and uncertaine senses but it seemes to have so oftentimes in respect of our vanity or ignorance Which leads me into consideration of the second charge I lay to some perverse spirits of these times which by obscure and mysterious Allegories draw a vaile and cast thick Clouds betweene us and the Scriptures and then cry out that they are mysterious obscure darke and hidden but If our Gospel bee hid as the Apostle saith it is hid to them that perish in whom the God of this World hath blinded their eyes Pride or some evill lusting hath blinded their eyes and then they cry out that there is a defect on the part of the object that that is not visible and the way by which they would spiritualize and inlighten it renders it a thousand times darker whilst under a pretence of running far enough from the Letter which they judge carnall and killing they subject it to the vanities and dreamings of every addle head and make the holy Scripture Eccho to the sound that is already in their eares according to that English Proverbe As the foole thinketh so the Bell tincketh But first here they greatly mistake who in alluding to that place of 1 Cor. 3.6 Not of the letter but of the spirit thinke there is an opposition put betwixt the letter of the Gospel and New Testament and the spirituall sense of it for here plainely by Letter is meant the Law and by spirit is meant the Gospel or New Testament in the very letter of it as you have John 1. The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Not as if the Jewes were onely under a literall externall administration which did not affect their spirits God knew how to speake to his in those times but that was not the office of Moses or of the Law which propounded rules of living with promises and threatnings therefore When the Law came sin revived and I dyed saith Paul But the Ministry of the Gospel he cals spirit because the things it declares are quickning enlivening and restoring and such as speaking comparatively also the spirit accompanies much more then it did the Law as being the instrument of the grace of Christ in his Ministry The mistake of this place made Origen first and since very many loose themselves and their auditors in senslesse and idle Allegories supposing that the allegoricall sense was spirituall and the literall killing whereas the literall sense in most scriptures is not onely a spirituall sense but the onely spirituall sense of it and if besides what sense I have given of this place of the Law and the Gospel it reaches further the letter and the spirit is not to be understood of the Exposition of the words but of the fruit and effect of it it then being onely received in the Letter when it affects not the heart nor workes saving changes upon us and then in the spirit when it indeed converts and turnes us and moulds us into that holy frame and forme to which God ordaines his people Now that these expressions of the Spirit and the Letter are meant particularly of the Law and the Gospel appeares evidently in the following verses 7 8 9. For verse 7. speaking of the Letter he calls it The administration of death written and engraven in stones which we know was the Law this hee proves glorious from the glory and shining of Moses countenance In opposition to this he cals the Gospel The ministry of the spirit verse 8. and shews in one point more the excelling glory of this Gospell beyond the Law that it is to abide and remain evermore whereas the other is done away and past verse 10 11. It is true that what the Law is of it self that the Gospel is by accident killing and destructive 2 Corinth 2 16. To the one we are the savour of death unto death c. But though the Gospel be the occasion of damnation to very many notwithstanding it may be called the Spirit or Doctrine of life for as much as God uses it as the instrument or vehiculum of our conversion or new life and that it holds out and offers free reconciliation to us with God whereas the Law taking it simply and alone as it is here taken is the Letter that killeth and the ministry of death prescribing onely an exact rule of life by which comes the knowledge and reviving of sinne which kills without shewing any releife or way to escape And thus have I briefly opened this place which hath been the cause to many of such grosse errings and mistakes But to proceed It is certaine the Scriptures have a plainnesse and easinesse in them to be understood and therefore are said to be A light to our feet and a Lanthorne to our paths and a light shining in a darke place Thy words they give light they give understanding to the simple And if this may be affirmed of the Writings of the Old Testament with much more reason may it be affirmed of those of the New For Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ They had many things formerly in Types and Allegories as things that concerned others more then themselves For it was revealed to them that
not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that Preacht the Gospell unto you 1 Pet. 1.12 Therefore Moses their Prophet was vayled to them But we with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed from glory to glory 1 Cor. 3.13 18. Nor will it be to any purpose to object here that which is affirmed by Peter 2 Pet. 3.16 That some things in Pauls Epistles are hard to be understood For even those things be made easie by diligence prayer to God communication and conference with others God hath made in all things indigency the bond of Society without we need one another we should not value and esteeme one another we should not have love nor converse one with another But who doth this difficulty or hardnesse here spoken of hurt Men unlearned and unstable whose sluggishnesse makes unlearned and whose corruption and depravement makes unstable men that are double in their ends and therefore unstable in their wayes as appeares by their wresting and destroying of the Scriptures which is there spoken of and not only those hard places but other Scriptures also to their owne destruction But if there be any difficulty in Scripture-expressions which God sometimes permits for holy ends as I have said will the way to helpe our selves be to fall a Figurizing and Allegorizing making the Word of God saplesse and fruitlesse by the vanity of our Traditions Or because as the men I complaine against use to doe there are some figurative and allegoricall expressions in the New Testament as when our Saviour calls himselfe a Vine or a Doore which figurative speeches are to ordinary eares as easie to be understood as the most literall shall we take liberty from hence to confound Heaven and Earth And upon every itching of our owne fancy to dissolve the whole Scripture and Word of God into Figures and Allegories Which in stead of inlightning brings us into clouds and darknesse that in that mist the Devill may use as he will I will not deny but some things are to be expounded allegorically The legall Ceremonies may be handled allegorically because they were shadows and types of good things to come as the Paschall Lambe of Christ Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ was the scope and Butt of the Old Testament and therefore the Paschall Lambe the brazen Serpent and a hundred other things are accommodated justly to him also severall Histories upon this account have their allegoricall use so there be a care had to preserve the Historicall truth stable and unshaken So our Saviour accommodates the History of Solomon and Jonas to himselfe as having besides the Historicall truth an use of typifying out him in his office and sufferings and if a man by way of allusion or similitude will allegorize a History as to say that as David overcame Goliah so Christ doth the Devill so the spirit doth the flesh if it be done pertinently may have its use But without all question the literall sense of Scripture especially of the New Testament is principally to be sought after as that you may safely build upon for Doctrines Exhortations and Conclusions Symbolica Theologia non est argumentativa except such as the holy Ghost propounds and interprets in which case wee may safely follow and conclude from Allegories I would not therefore expound any Scriptures allegorically except as before but such as could not be expounded literally as for instance When without the supposition of a type or figure the Scriptures would imply a falshood or when in a Gramaticall sense the words of the Scripture would imply an absurdity as that Christ is a Doore or a Vine or when the literall sense is contradictory to a rule of Faith as when we are commanded to pull out an eye or to cut off a hand or foot but to depart needlesly from the Gramatical and literall sense of Scripture to subtelize it with Figures and Allegories is that which destroyes the majesty and integrity of the Word of God makes it a Nose of Wax and subjects it to the fancies of every crasie and unsound braine so that as in another case one complaines they doe Verborum minutiis rerum frangere pondera And if it be objected as it is by some that if the literall and Gramaticall sense be the Scripture sense the naturall man may be very able in understanding Scripture I Answer that no question they may and to their greater condemnation but yet they want the glory and life of this understanding which is the spirituall impression affecting their hearts and making them God like Those things which are words of life and peace to one are but a dead letter to them there wants that infusion into the words which makes them mighty and converting Changing them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan to God to one it is the word of Men to others it is the word of God the power of God to salvation effectually working in them that beleeve Whereas those absurd Allegorizers we complaine of boast of the spirit and revelations and thinke they have got all when they have mudded and defiled and nonsensifyed a Scripture with their Figures and Allegories though they feele nothing of the spirit and life which should change and convert them into the forme of Doctrine delivered to them And according to this sense must severall Scriptures be accommodated particularly that 1 Cor. 2.14 The naturall man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can hee know them because they are spiritually discerned That which we translate the naturall man is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animalis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab anima the soule so as he is a naturall or an animall man which walkes according to sense or to the flesh that judges of things after a carnall and humane reasoning other things are foolishnesse to him so you have it in the 23. of the former Chapter We Preach Christ crucified to the Greeks foolishnesse And in the words of the Text The things of the spirit of God are foolishnesse unto him Yet the notion of Christ Crucified as it is layd downe in Scripture in plaine and significant words is certainely intelligible to an animall man but the spirituall reason of it which is the beauty and glory of it which should alter and convert and transforme by beholding that he sees not and therefore though custome and commonnesse have taken away the seeming absurdity of such a notion so as men can beare it and take it up and professe it with others yet the spirituall beauty of it which is the taking and converting thing they see not As the eye of sense sees the figure and superficies of a thing but cannot tell the reason of it for want of a principle to judge by so a naturall man that hath no other
Those things which in the next place come into consideration and need to bee vindicated from the dishonour and scorne put upon them by a Generation of these Times who impose their vaine and addle fancies under the name and title of Spiritual Revelations are Gospell Ordinances such as Preaching the Word Baptisme the Lords Supper Church fellowship and assembling with what ever institutions our Lord hath left to entertaine us with in this state whilst we are absent from the Lord and present in the body whilst wee live by faith and not by sight In order to this that which I first pitcht my thoughts upon was that place of the 1 Corinth 1.21 For after that in the wisedome of God the World by wisedome knew not God it pleased God by the foolishnesse of Preaching to save them that beleeve which seemes particularly to strike at the Vanity of such men who being as little able as others in a way of wisedome to know God by the wisedome of God are yet extreamly scandalized at the weakenesse and foolishnesse of Preaching and other Ordinances of that kind That I might the better discover the scope and drift of this place I thought it would be necessary to consider something the coherence In this Chapter therefore after the usuall salutations and gratulations in the nine first Verses in the tenth he falls upon the first subject which he handles in this Epistle to wit the dissentions and divisions which were amongst the Corinthians with which he charges them Verse 11 12. and from which he dehorts them Hee gives them this authority for what he charges them with The houshold of Cloe Verse 11. then shewes what their fault was that they were taken and captivated with the names of men which though of good and holy men was not lawfull nor fit for them to be nay not of Christ himselfe as if doting on his person after the flesh his words his deeds his miracles should be onely extold and magnified with the despising or villifying of the gifts and miracles and doctrines of others though as Christ God Man they proceed from him This Christ seemes himselfe to reprove in the young man Matth. 19.16 One came and sayd Good Master what good thing shall I doe Why callest thou mee good saith Christ there is none good c. But keepe thou the Commandements Whereby Christ shewes that that which the man considered was not so much God the chiefe good and holinesse the way of converse with him but look't upon him as some excellent and famous Master Why callest thou me good Why lookest thou so much upon my person and outward man Rather all acceptance of persons layd aside mind my Doctrine This knowing Christ after the flesh as a gifted man so indowed c. with difference from others Paul disclaimes 2 Cor. 5.16 he knew him not now as a Preacher of the Gospel as a Minister conversing here on earth full of excellent gifts and parts of such a spirit and nature but in a divine and heavenly manner as he that was the Captaine of their Salvation that reconciled them to God that dyed for them and rose againe after such a heavenly manner he knew him and therefore was to bee new himselfe both in the manner of his knowledge and the rule of his life Verse 15 16 17 19. Verse 13. He tells them this their factious dissention shewes as if there were many Christs many Gospels many Saviours of the World whereas Christ is but one and not divided or as if they were baptized into another Name then Christs for so they gave themselves up as Disciples to particular Teachers and Ministers as if they held their Baptisme of them or they were Crucyfied for them I thanke God saith he it is fallen out by a good providence that I have baptized a very few Least any should say I had baptized in my owne name That is I had formed mee a Generation of followers and sect of Disciples For that was it seemes a corrupt fashion amongst them that those who baptized should be followed and adored by them as their spirituall Father and Master Verse 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize but to Preach the Gospell that is the principall piece of my Ministry to which I was adorned with such gifts and graces and miracles was Preaching Baptisme indeed was an appendix of preaching and was in the Apostolicall Commission but being every ones worke as the serving of Tables was committed when it grew burthensome to others that the Apostles might give themselves to the word and prayer For conversion from Atheisme and Judaisme being the great worke the administration of the Seales which needed not those gifts nor labour was done ordinarily by other hands so Peter instructed the house of Cornelius but hee commanded them to be baptized by others Acts 10. So Christ Preached but his Disciples Baptized John 4. Paul had Commission to Baptize else hee would not have baptized any but not principally Suitable to this is that place Jer. 7.22 I spake not to your Fathers concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices but this thing I commanded them obey my voyce c. Although in Aegypt they sacrificed the Passeover and in Mount Sinai hee commanded them concerning Sacrifices but the other was the principall Like also unto which is that phrase I will have mercy and not sacrifice that is I require mercy rather and more principally then sacrifice So the Apostle sayd It was not meet for them to leave the word of God and to serve tables yet Paul did gather money for the poore Saints at Hierusalem that is that was not their chief and ordinary worke but the other Not with wisedome of words c. He had no sooner made mention of Preaching the Gospel but he taxes the principall vice of these Sectaries which was a certaine vanity in preaching the Gospel not onely with Rhetoricall inlargements and expressions but even so Philosophating the Gospel as they made it hold rather of humane wisedome then that divine simplicity which became so holy and heavenly a subject Least the Crosse of Christ c. that is least the Gospell of Christ Crucified should be rendred vaine and uselesse as needing the power of humane wisedome to uphold it Verse 18. For the preaching of the Crosse is to them that perish foolishnesse This preaching of Christ crucified or a crucified Saviour seemes to proud and seeming wise men the foolishest thing in the world that a dying man should give life to others that hee that could not save himselfe should save the World But unto us who are saved c. Those who being predestinate to eternall life beleeve and are saved they feele it is the power of God and what is a more admirable effect of power and of God then that a crucified Saviour by a company of illiterate poore men should render the spirit quiet and stable in God and give that conversion in life which all the learned discourses of Philosophers
their argumentations and parrallells who like Orators that manage an ill cause make least stay in the most important places And here I should put an end to this discourse of The Vindication of Gospell Ordinances having shown by generall grounds of Scripture the reason of the thing it selfe and a particular instance in a leading and prime Ordinance to wit baptisme that there are certaine formes and institutions remaining with us suited and proportioned to our state which are pledges of Christs love to us tracts and wayes wherein hee delights to meet us and meanes by which he conveys himselfe to us in this state of our Pilgrimage Whilst we are at home in the body and absent from the Lord whilst we live by Faith and not by sight whilst wee see in a glasse darkly and not face to face whilst wee know in part and not as we are knowne But least any should thinke that this tends to an undervaluing of the spirit of God or a lessening of his Empire though no such thing but the contrary is to be gathered out of all the premises yet I am not unwilling by way of Corollary and conclusion to this discourse to spend a few words particularly upon this subject and to professe before all the World that nothing ought to be so dear to us and so much esteemed and so much sought for by us as the accesses and influences of the holy spirit That it is the spirit that leads us into all truth it is the spirit that quickens the spirit that comforts us without which since our Lord went into Heaven we had been left Orphans and Fatherlesse It is the spirit that searcheth all things the spirit that inables to judge all things the spirit by which wee live in which wee walke when wee walke with God and doe any thing that is agreable to his will it is the spirit that seales us to the day of redemption and witnesseth with our spirits that we are the Sonnes of God It is the spirit that hath done all the wonderfull things which the holy Scriptures record it is the spirit that hath given boldnesse in all ages to doe and to suffer great things for the Name and Testimony of Jesus If I should pursue this Theame at large there would be no end or meane found of the Encomiums and Elogyes of the spirit It is the fellowship therefore and communion of the holy spirit which my soule breaths after and longs for above any thing imaginable But that which I affirme is that the spirit is communicated to us particularly and especially in such Ordinances as we have been speaking of It was the spirit that strove with the old World in the Ministry of Noah a Preacher of righteousnesse and in the administration of the old Covenant the things they were taught and provoked to were things spirituall and they were sayd to have the good spirit of the Lord to instruct them Nehem. 9.10 Which was undoubtedly the reason why the Saints of those times breathed so much after those Ordinances which God had fitted to their present state and capacity as things in which the spirit instructed them and God blest to them to know more of his mind then all the World by any other way or wisedome could doe For the new and better Covenant under which state and condition we live the spirit is conveyed to us by certaine formes and institutions of Gods owne inventing Preaching is a great Ordinance in the hand of God for the conveying of the holy spirit the Galatians received the spirit by the hearing of Faith preached Galat. 3.3 And we know that generally all the great and famous conversions which are seene in the World by which men are sayd to be borne of the spirit are administred by the Preaching of the Gospell in the mouth of the ordinary Ministers and dispensers of it former times for the greater glory of the beginnings of the Gospel had greater Harvests but the way of administration was the same then at one Sermon there were added to the Church three thousand and whilst Peter was Preaching to Cornelius and his friends the holy Ghost fell upon all them that heard the word but the way as I sayd is the same ever since and it pleases God by the foolishnesse of Preaching to save them that beleeve And as the holy Ghost doth preside the Ministry of preaching so the ordinary Officers and Elders of the Church were sayd to be made Overseeers by the holy ghost to feed the Church of God which he had purchased with his own blood Acts 20.28 And for that Ordinance for which wee have more particularly contended Baptisme we are sayd by one spirit to bee all baptized into one body and usually the administration of the spirit accompanyed baptisme either after it as an appendix or before it as a qualification for that Ordinance as I have already shewed That therefore which makes mee contend for the holy Ordinances of God and value them to that height which through the grace of God I do is that inestimable value and esteeme I put upon the holy spirit of God who is pleased to meete us in these tracts and to offer himselfe to us in these administrations But such is the vanity and perversnesse of men that to avoyd errours they runne ever into extremities We see it in civill things those who have found the pressures of the Tyranny of one man thinke themselves never safe till they have cast off all Government and runne willingly into Anarchy or that which is next to that worst Democracy or the Government of the People Whereas in all things especially in things of God and Religion truth and right is that which lyes in the middle as diverse in its owne nature from either extreame as one extreame is from the other It were certainely absurd in nature because it is our spirits that immediatly act our bodyes for us to fall out with our blood as with a grosse and dul substance that we would have nothing to doe with when as our blood is the Vehiculum of our spirits And it is not lesse absurd for us in the present state wherein we are to cry out of Ordinances as of things grosse and disproportionable to a spirituall life and man when God who knowes our temper better then we our selves uses them to convey his spirit by and makes them tracts and wayes wherein he is wont to meet us To Idolize and make a God of Ordinances as if the opus operatum rendred us spirituall and agreeable to God as it hath beene the fault of Christians in many ages so it is the most uncomely and most unsprituall thing that can be but for the avoiding of this folly and fault to fling them all away as things not at all usefull because not suitable to our carnall reasonings about spirituall things or capable of an abuse is an unspiritualnesse and uncomelynesse no lesse great then the former For my part whilst God