2.10 And so the Gospel hath proved to be especially to those who have been prepared to receive it by being concerned in their own minds how they should do to be saved Thus when our Saviour preached the Gospel first in Galilee it is said that then the People saw a great light and to them who sate in the region of the shadow of death light was sprung up Mat. 4. So such as were pricked in their hearts through a sense of guilt and danger gladly received the Word which brought them tidings of remission of sin through Christ upon Repentance Act. 2.37 42. Thus again when the Gospel was first preached in Samaria it is said there was great joy in that City Act. 8. The Gentiles also when they had the Gospel first preached unto them at Antioch they were glad and glorified the Word of the Lord Act. 13.47 The Gospel was not so welcome to all where it came and what was the reason it was not as well as to others The reason was because they had not learned by the Fathers teaching as some had done but stifled the operations of natural light in their minds and had laboured to lay their Consciences asleep again after at any time they had been awakened by God They laboured to put thoughts about their future state out of their minds because they found them troublesom unto them They closed their eyes and stopped their ears against any thing that tended to awaken them But all did not so but remained thoughtful about their future state after death when God once had awakened them by strong impressions of natural Religion to be concerned in their own minds about it And they were such as these who were wont to receive the Gospel and believe it when it came among them As we see for instance in those Gentiles to whom Paul and Barnabas preached Acts 13.48 For it is said of them As many as were ordained to eternal life believed Or as others from the Greek read it As many as were disposed to or for eternal life believed that is as I after others understand it As many as were ordered or whose thoughts were ordered and minds disposed for eternal life that is to look after eternal life these were the People that believed And indeed the Gospel was design'd in chief as it should seem for those whose hearts and minds are bruised or broken with fears and cares about their Salvation For thus run the words of that Prophesie which was fulfilled in the Publication of the Gospel by Christ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the Poor he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the Lord Luke 4.18 19. Which is true not onely in respect of those that are bruised and broken in heart with godly sorrow for sin but also in respect of such whose hearts and minds are bruised and battered with fears and terrours in reference to that misery to which they stand exposed for sin And it is further considerable to our purpose that those which our Saviour invites to come to him and promiseth them rest if they do are such as labour and are heavy laden that labour under and are laden with anxious thoughts and cares about their future state for they are a wearisom burden to the mind Mat. 11.28 And again If any man thirst let him come to me and drink saith our Saviour John 7.37 and let him that is athirst come Rev. 22.17 to wit such as lack and long for some cooling and refreshing to their minds and spirits which are heated and inflamed with anxious thoughts and cares about the condition of their souls for the future when they shall leave the body For this Invitation is made to such as were not yet come to Christ had not yet truly believed in him For a true belief in him quencheth this kind of thirst And therefore our Saviour saith he that believeth in me shall never thirst John 6.35 And again Whosoever drinketh of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst John 4.14 This water when once well drunk of quencheth that flame which before burnt up the spirits Again to shew what preparation of mind is necessary to make us prize Christ when offered and willing to be governed by him in order to our cure and ease consider that saying of our Saviour Mat. 9.12 The Whole need not the Physician but the Sick to wit such as are ill at ease in their own minds for that is the meaning of the Metaphor I conceive Other than such have not a sense of their need of a Physician nor will care to be governed by his Methods of Physick Which was the reason why our Saviour chose rather to be among Publicans and Sinners than Pharisees for those being more sensible of their obnoxiousness to Gods displeasure than the Pharisees were who trusted in themselves that they were righteous were better prepared to receive the Gospel than the Pharisees were Which appears by that saying of Christ to them Mat. 21.31 Verily I say unto you that the Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of Heaven before you Thus we see how the teaching of the Father by impressions of natural Religion upon the mind prepares men for a belief in Christ and a receiving his Gospel as they come thereby to be convinced of their guiltiness and of their obnoxiousness to the displeasure of God thereby and to be concerned in their own minds about their future state after death 2. I am now in the second place to shew how the teaching of the Father by natural Religion prepares Men for a belief of the Gospel as they come thereby to a sensible discerning of the nature and tendency of moral righteousness and goodness Men are taught by natural Religion that it is a thing good in it self and well becoming them to adore and worship God the author of their Being and to seek unto him in all their needs to be just and faithful and kind one to another And they know and find by experience that when they most observe to do so they have most ease in their own minds Their Consciences never trouble them for any thing of this nature these things when they do them do not make them afraid of God as things of a contrary nature do Such as these are things about which mens thoughts do excuse them as the Apostles phrase is Rom. 2.15 And men find a vast difference between excusing and accusing thoughts These do not draw men before the Judgment Seat of God before the Judgment Day does come as accusing thoughts do Now the stronger sense men have of the excellent nature of moral righteousness and goodness and of its peaceable and comfortable effects upon the mind the better prepared they must needs be to
whole Society of Believers that he may present them to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing and to beautifie and adorn them as a Bride for such a Husband as Jesus Christ is and will appear to be in the day of the manifestation of all his glory that he may not be ashamed to own them for such And thus we see another of the ends for which Christians receive a greater and more constant presence and assistance of the Holy Spirit after they believe than they did before is to fit and prepare them for greater glory and happiness than the lowest degree of performing the condition of the promise as at the first will make them capable of We will now a little consider in what or wherein the Holy Spirit doth assist the Believers when they grow up thereby unto more perfection in the Christian life One of the first things I conceive he does is to stir them up to and to assist them in making prayers and supplications unto Almighty God for the working in them that which is well-pleasing in his sight For although God be ready to bless them with all spiritual blessings in Christ yet not without being sought unto to do it for them And accordingly they are promised but upon that condition Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find Matth. 7.7 Otherwise it will fare with them as it did with those S. James speaks to James 4.2 Ye have not because ye ask not Now to the end therefore that Believers may receive such an increase and growth in all divine Vertues as by means whereof they may live as becomes the Gospel and be made meet for the celestial glory the Holy Spirit doth assist them to make requests according to the will of God and helpeth their infirmities when otherwise they know not how to pray as they ought Rom. 8.26 27. Almighty God poureth on them the Spirit of grace and supplication as the Prophet speaks Zech. 12.10 He helps them not onely to pray for such things as they ought but also in such a manner as they should to wit with a great sense of their own wants and of their own unworthiness to obtain and of the worth and excellency and defireableness of those spiritual blessings they pray for He helps them to pray with seriousness and devotion of soul and with an humble fervency accompanied with sighs and groans which cannot well be uttered by them many times He helps them also to pray in faith concerning the goodness of the nature of God and his readiness to give and to forgive and concerning the prevailing intercession of Jesus Christ our blessed Advocate God sends forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts crying Abba Father enabling them in their Addresses to God to depend upon him as their Father and humbly to expect to be used and dealt with by him in all respects as a Father while they resolve and endeavour to carry it toward him as his children And when the Holy Spirit enables them to pray thus they may be said to pray in the Holy Ghost as Jude 20. to make prayers and supplications in the Spirit as Ephes 6.18 And when the Holy Spirit hath thus holpen the Believers to seek those things of God which pertain to life and godliness grace strength and ability to overcome corruptions and temptations and to live a sober righteous and a godly life then the Holy Spirit in way of return to such prayers doth assist them in their endeavours in the use of means to attain those things they have begged of God This we are well assured of by our Saviour himself when we compare his saying as related by S. Matthew with the same as related by S. Luke In Mat. 7.11 he saith If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him Or how much more shall your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him saith S. Luke 11.13 From both which compared we learn that God is most ready and willing to give those that seriously ask them out of a sense of their want of them all graces or gracious qualifications and dispositions of soul necessary to their pleasing of God by giving them his Holy Spirit to work them in them Or that by giving them his Holy Spirit he gives them all those good things because when the Spirit is given unto men it is to work those good things in them by way of assistance This might be shewed in particular instances I shall mention some When we crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts when weeleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit when we mortifie the deeds of the body it is still by the help and assisistance of Gods Spirit that it is done Rom. 8.13 If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Gods Spirit in his Servants lusteth against the flesh as the flesh doth against the Spirit it draws a contrary way and therein prevails against the flesh The flesh calls upon men to be gratified in this and that in things either unlawful in themselves or in that degree which is unlawful But the Spirit calls upon us by exciting thoughts in us to mind and regard our souls and by no means to wrong them by disturbing their peace or hazarding their safety to gratifie the flesh with momentary pleasures which will leave guilt and trouble upon the mind when they are vanished and gone themselves And the Spirit by frequent prevailing herein comes at last to kill this itch in the flesh Again when the Believers minds and wills become more and more reconciled to their duty and to be in love with it in all the instances of it both towards God and towards men it is still through the help of the Holy Spirit that they are so 1 Pet. 2.22 Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit That they obey the truth in what it requires it is through the Spirit strengthening and quickening them thereto by making the motives thereto present to their thoughts In 2 Chron. 30.12 it is said that in Juda the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the King and of the Princes by the word of the Lord. The hand of God upon the heart as well as the word of the Lord by the ministry of men is that by which mens wills are bowed and inclined to what God commands He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him saith the Apostle 1 John 3.24 Our keeping the commandments is an eviderce of Gods dwelling in us because it is the effect of his presence with us to assist us therein he argues from the effect to the cause Again it is the effect of the Holy Spirits presence with Believers and of
viz. the Son of God and consequently that his doctrine is of divine authority Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name John 29.30 31. These miracles in conjunction with the nature of our Saviours doctrine in nothing contrary to natural Religion had certainly a very great tendency in them to beget a belief in him and of his doctrine or else he would never have marvelled as he did at the unbelief of those which saw them and heard him Mark 6.6 He marvelled at their unbelief Their unbelief under such circumstances is mentioned again as matter of wonder John 12.37 But though he had done so many miracles before them yet they believed not on him But this would have been no matter of marvel to our Saviour or wonder to his Disciples if there had not been a mighty power in those miracles to convirce men and to persuade them to believe To this end also served the resurrection of Christ from the dead for by that he was mightily declared to be the Son of God Rom. 1.4 And when the Apostles of our Lord were after his Resurrection sent forth to convert the World to Christianity by preaching the Gospel to them as a means to make it efficacious to this end and to procure it credit and authority in the minds of men they were endued by the Lord with a power of working miracles and of speaking with new tongues Mark 16.20 They went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following Heb. 2.4 God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will And it was in respect of these powerful confirmations of the Gospel I doubt not that S. Paul says his preaching was in demonstration of the spirit and of power and not with enticing or persuasible words of mans wisdom 1 Cor. 2.4 It was by reason of this kind of demonstration of the Gospel to be from God which was made by the miraculous operation of the Spirit by the Apostles that the Gospel was received as the Word of God and not as the Word of Man as all those Discourses of Philosophers were which had no other confirmation than what the Wit and Oratory of men could derive from principles of natural and humane Wisdom But the Apostles doctrine as it was in the nature of it above humane pitch to find out so their way of confirming of it was above all humane power and wisdom also As their doctrine was known onely by the Holy Spirits revealing so the arguments motives and reasons by which they persuaded men to believe it to be from God were fetched from the Spirits own mighty operations which were visible to men as well those that did not as those which did believe They compared and suited spiritual things with spiritual ver 13. The nature of their arguments by which they persuaded men to believe their doctrine were suited to the nature of their doctrine both being from the Holy Spirit The one by the Spirits revelation to the Apostles the other by the Spirits miraculous operations by the Apostles They proved their doctrine was revealed to them by God by the testimony which he gave that he had sent them to preach what they did preach by enabling them to do such things which none could do but by virtue of a divine power which put forth it self in them God as was said did bear them witness by signs wonders and by divers miracles which he enabled them to do and to shew And being the Gospel was upon the account of this confirmation received as the Word of God and not of Man as the Author of it therefore it was that it did operate so powerfully as it did in the hearts and lives of them that received it to the transforming them in their minds and spirits and in the tenour of their lives and actions into other manner of men than they were before By reason of which transformation the Scripture stiles them New Creatures and the man thus altered the New Man When ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us saith S. Paul ye received it not as the word of man but as it is in truth the Word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe 1 Thess 2.13 The Gospel then thus confirmed as hath been represented was and is so glorious an object of Faith and so every way sitted and prepared to command mens belief of it that S. Paul supposeth it impossible but that men should believe it unless the Devil hath strangely blinded their minds And therefore he saith 2 Cor. 4.3 4. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this World hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them And thus we see what great assistance God hath vouchsafed us for our performing the condition of the promise by giving us his Gospel The Lord by his Prophet speaking of how much he had done for his People of old to enable them to be what he expected they should be in order to the happiness he designed them saith Isa 5.4 What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it that is What in reason could they expect he should have done more to make them become obedient and fruitful than he had done And yet he hath done much more for us who live under the Gospel than he did for them For he hath sent his own Son to reconcile us to himself and himself to us by his death He hath sent his own Son to persuade men which is more than all the Prophets which he sent before And as he is greater himself so he persuades by greater arguments than the Prophets were wont to do both in respect of what hath been done for us already to oblige us and in respect of what he will do in rewarding if obedient and in punishing if disobedient And all this lies fair before us in the Gospel by which life and immortality is brought to light and which comes to us more gloriously attested also than the doctrine of Moses and the Prophets did to them And therefore the Lord may much more appeal to us than he did to them and say What could have been done more to engage you to believe and obey the Gospel and so to perform the condition of the promise which I have not done And if so How then shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him And yet behold
he hath done and does more for us in another respect under the Gospel than he did in times past for his own peculiar People For according to the various predictions of the Prophets of old we under the Gospel have a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit to enable us to perform the condition of the promise of pardon and life than ever they ordinarily had Which brings me to the second thing I proposed to insist on which is to shew what assistance men receive in performing the condition of the promise by the influence and operation of the Spirit of God CHAP. V. How by the Holy Spirits operation upon the Mind and Will men are assisted in performing the condition of the Promise BUt before I proceed to shew this to prevent misunderstanding in this matter I must premise thus much by way of caution to wit That when I propose the influence and operation of the Holy Spirit to be considered as an aid distinct from that which is vouchsafed by the Gospel it self I would not be understood thereby to deny that assistance which we receive by the Gospel it self in performing the condition of the promise to be the aid and assistance of the Spirit at least in some respect I onely suppose that there is an influence and operation of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of men by which they are enabled to perform the condition of the promise over and above what the Gospel in its own nature abstractedly considered does contribute thereunto Otherwise as I have been now shewing the operations of the Gospel it self is of and from the Holy Spirit both in respect of its revelation and consirmation So that what is said and done by the Gospel is in a sense said and done by the Holy Spirit And they are led by the Spirt and walk in the Spirit that make the Gospel their Guide All Scripture is given by inspiration of God 2 Tim. 3.16 and holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 And the things spoken by the Prophets in the Old-Testament are said in the New to be spoken by the Holy Ghost Acts 1.16 and 28.25 Heb. 3.7 and 10.15 And it 's seven times said in Revel c. 2 3. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches meaning what he said to them in and by those Epistles which S. John sent to the seven Churches in Asia And God is said to have testified against the People of the Jews by his Spirit in his Prophets Neh. 9.30 And S. Stephen said to those in his time for opposing the Gospel Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your Fathers did so do ye And S. Paul said touching such as should despise their doctrine and commands He that despiseth despiseth not man but God who also hath given unto us his Holy Spirit 1 Thess 48. By all this it appears that what is done by the doctrine of men divinely inspired is done by the Spirit of God and what is done against it or against them for the sake of it is done against the Spirit of God He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me saith our Saviour also Luke 10.16 But yet though the assistance men receive by the Gospel in performing the condition of the promise be the assistance of the Holy Spirit yet it is not all the assistance they receive from the Holy Spirit therein For when the holy Scripture speaks of the Gospels coming unto men not in word onely but also in power and in the Holy Ghost 1 Thess 1.5 of their being born of the Spirit John 1.13 and 3.5 of the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 of their obeying the truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 1.22 of a being built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit Ephes 2.22 of the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and of Gods working in them to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13 and the like there is no reason to restrain the sense of such sayings unto the alone operation of the doctrine of the Gospel as having God or the Spirit of God for its Author and no more The Prayers which our Saviour made and taught his Disciples to make for the success of the Gospel and which the Apostles made and taught the Christians to make for the like do all of them imply likewise something more to be done by God for the renewing of men unto himself than onely by his bare sending his Gospel among them Although men can consider matters discovered by the Gospel when they hear them as well as they can any other things set forth by Discourses of another nature and indeed God expects they should do so at the peril of their own destruction if they do not yet such is the zeal of the Lord to promote and set forward the business of our salvation that he is not willing to trust the work onely in our hands though he hath brought it to our hands by such preparations wherein he hath prevented all endeavours of ours He doth not onely bring the Gospel and our minds together and then leave them to operate upon each other in the strength of their own nature onely but is graciously pleased to accompany his word more or less as he sees good with a secret operation of his spirit upon our minds both to incline and dispose the internal faculties to exercise and imploy themselves about matters of this high nature and likewise to assist them in it There is doubtless a secret power and efficacy of the divine Spirit goes along with the Gospel into the mind and will by means whereof the Gospel does the more readily and effectually work upon the mind and will to the renewing of them When the Disciples scattered by occasion of the Persecution by Saul preached the Gospel to the Grecians it is said The hand of the Lord was with them and that a great number believed and turned to the Lord Acts 11.21 Their believing and turning to the Lord was the effect of the Lords hand being with them in preaching as well as it was the effect of what was preached The Gospel is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth Rom. 1.16 Believing and Salvation are the effects of Gods power going along with the Gospel as well as of the Gospel it self By that the Gospel becomes more quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword It is the sword of the Spirit as it is called as well in respect of its being managed by the Spirit as it is by being provided by the Spirit for Christians to manage The whole success of the Gospel in producing those happy effects in men by which they become other manner of men than they were before is ascribed unto the grace and blessing of God that goes along with the Gospel I have planted and Apollos
but make use of this power by an actual beginning to perform this condition as they may God will then give them so much more of it as whereby they may finish it unless they refuse to make use of it So that if men do not perform the condition of the promise it is not for want of power but for want of making use of that power which God hath already given them by his preventing grace otherwise their destruction would not be of themselves which yet it is as all grant There are none but upon that awakening which they have had from God one way and one time or other might out of a dread of him and of his wrath revealed from Heaven against all Vngodliness and Vnrighteousness of men have begun to reform and to become less sinful by leaving off some ill practices and they would have found they could have done so in case they had been sure they should have lost their Lives or Estates presently if they had not Though they had not power all on a sudden to become good yet they had power through Gods preventing grace not to have been so bad The worst of men doubtless had power before such time as by their obstinacy and opposition against God and his dealing with them they sinned it away to have reformed in part which to have done out of a dread of God would have been a beginning to repent and so a beginning to perform the condition of the promise of pardon The men of Nineveh by the awakening of their fears by the preaching of Jonah could we see turn from their evil ways and in particular from the violence that was in their hands Jonah 3.8 10. And by the same assistance and power by which men may become less bad they may be able also to make more use than they have done of the means of Grace and to become positively better thereby to a degree Which if they do and do not by seeking out vain reasonings and evasions obliterate that sense by which they began to be better God will supply them with more power to proceed in the Work of Reformation until it come to a Work of Renovation of the whole man both in heart and life and therein unto a performance of the condition of the promise And as it is we see matter of great moment that the people be made to understand the Method of Divine Assistance so is it of no less concernment for them to understand upon what terms it may be expected as whether upon previous conditions or without For if it be not to be expected but upon conditions to be performed on our part and yet we think otherwise we shall be in extream great danger of depriving our selves of that assistance by neglecting what belongs to us to make our selves capable of it And therefore for a right understanding of this matter we must distinguish between such an assistance as is onely preparatory to a farther assistance and that by means of which the condition of the Promise is compleatly performed And if we do we shall find that the preparatory assistance is indeed afforded unto men without any condition at all save what our Saviour hath performed by his Mediatorial obedience to obtain it for us And this Preparatory Assistance is that which we call Gods Preventing Grace because by it he prevents all endeavours on our part to make our selves capable of it For he is aforehand with us in giving us the Gospel and the Ministry of it who live where it is and so he is by his secret operations upon our minds to make us sensible of our danger thereby to stir us up to bethink our selves how we may escape it and all this before we do any thing our selves with an intent to raise such a sense or consideration in our selves But although Gods Preparatory Assistance and Preventing Grace is vouchsafed unto men without any condition yet his farther Assistance is promised but upon condition of making use of his former When God hath been at work in mens minds to make them sensible of the danger of their sinful state and bad tendency of their evil ways and hath laid before them how they may escape it if yet they will not make so much use of all this as thereupon to concern themselves more than they had done about the affairs of their Souls and another World they can have no reason to promise themselves any further assistance from God nor can they be sure to have any repetition of the first For our Saviour hath told us saying What measure ye mete it shall be measured unto you and to you that hear more shall be given Mark 4.24 According to what measure we mete in the attendance or non-attendance of our minds to make use of those aids and assistances which God affords us it will be measured to us in affording or not affording us more And when he says that unto you tha hear more shall be given we cannot understand more thereby than that the promise of more assistance is made but onely to such as do attend to what God hath already admonished them of and who have so far taken into consideration what he hath said or done to them by his Word and by his Works of Providence without and by the awakening operations of his Spirit within as not to slight them but to be inclined thereby to be more mindful and solicitous about their Salvation than ever they were before And that our Saviours words aforesaid To you that hear more shall be given are to be understood in a conditional sense that is that more shall be given upon condition of attending to what had been done before is evident by his next words verse 25. For he that hath to him more shall be given and he that hath not from him shall be taken away even that which he hath that is as will be shewed in the following Discourse from him that hath not used and improved that which was first given him shall be taken away that which he already had rather than have any more given him By which assertion of our Saviour it appears that this is a Law of Heaven a rule which Almighty God is resolved ordinarily to observe in dispensing his assistances unto men that those who do not make some good use of his preventing grace his former assistance shall after some time of trial have that suspended and the current of it stopt As on the other hand they that do shall have more of it given them And if they make a good use of that more also they shall have more added to that other more a second degree of assistance added to the first and a third to the second and so on For God is and will be leading the way he will be aforehand with us in his assistances and if we do but follow him in our endeavours to make use of them he will still afford us more and more until he
him Rom. 7. By all this we may understand what S. Paul meant when he said that the Law entered that the offence might abound Rom. 5.20 that is that the offence in the evil nature and mischievous effects of it might be more abundantly known and men made more sensible of their sad condition by reason of it and that for this reason among others that grace might so much the more abound in the sight of men when the way and means of escaping that condition should be made known to them Where sin abounded grace did much more abound This state of theirs under the Law was that state of the spirit of bondage to fear whereof S. Paul speaks Rom. 8.15 But then this prepared the way of the Gospel by making that which tended to remove those fears the more acceptable To you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings saith the Lord speaking of his sending Christ among them Mal. 4.2 he came with healing to those souls which had been bruised and made sore before by fears and terrours that did arise in their minds out of that darker state of the Church wherein the way of salvation by Christ was more obscurely revealed But besides this by the promise they had of the Messiah and by the types and shadows of him in the Law and by the many predictions of the Prophets concerning him the Lord prepared them for the reception of him when he was come The Law in these respects was a Schoolmaster to bring them to Christ as the Apostle speaks Gal. 3.24 The many precepts of moral righteousness and goodness also wherein they were instructed out of the Law and the Prophets prepared them likewise to receive Christ for the true Messiah when he was come indeed for this reason viz. because of that harmony and good agreement that was between our Saviours precepts of living and what they had been taught before both by natural light and by revealed Religion superadded to it By this former teaching of the Father some of them became such Sheep as our Saviour said his Father had given him John 10.27 29. It was by vertue of this preparatory teaching of the Father that they knew the Shepherds voice when they heard it By this they could distinguish between the voice of the true Shepherd or Messias and the voice of Strangers the voice of hirelings Because the doctrine of our Saviour agreed with that way of righteousness which they had learned by the teaching of the Father as none others did that were but pretenders It was this that made such of them as had heard and learned of the Father to come to Christ to follow this Shepherd when they heard his voice that is to become his Disciples And yet more particularly John the Baptist was sent by the Almighty Father to prepare them by his Ministry for their reception of Christ and believing in him It was foretold by the Angel before his birth that he should make ready a People prepared for the Lord Luke 1.17 and by a spirit of Prophecy at his birth that he should go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way Vers 76. which he did by two things especially by awakening them to repentance and by giving them notice of the near approach and appearance of the Messiah He came into all the Countrey about Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins Luke 3.3 The People of the Jews were in great part become such a generation as Solomon speaks of that were pure in their own eyes and yet not washed from their filthiness Prov. 30.12 strict observers of the Ritual part of the Law but very immoral in their temper and in their lives full of a self-chosen righteousness their fear towards God taught by the precepts of men to wit the tradidition their Elders They were not sensible of the badness of their state their obnoxiousness to the wrath of God nor of their need of repentance in amending their lives And under these circumstances a Christ that should come to save them from their sins was not like to be very welcom unto them nor to answer their expectation who looked to be saved from the Roman Yoke by the Messiah but not from their sins Now that our Saviour might not lose the end of his coming amongst them John the Baptist was sent before him to convince them of their bad condition of their guilt of sin before God and of their liableness to his wrath That whereas thitherto the judgments upon their Nation even the worst that had befallen them had been but like the lopping of branches from off the trees that would grow again But now the Axe was laid to the root of the trees to cut them quite down never to grow again that the utter ruine of their State Nation and Temple was not far off if not prevented And that nothing could prevent it but confession of sin and bringing forth fruit meet for repentance Now this raised a spirit of fear in them of the wrath of Almighty God which hung over them for their sins which made such multitudes to come to his Baptism to confess their sins and by his Baptism to list themselves as Penitents And by this teaching of the Father they were the better prepared to receive Christ when he came especially when pointing to him he told them this is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the World that sin of theirs which exposed them to such danger and that put them in such fear as aforesaid And who were the Ring leaders in opposing Christ when he was come but the Pharisees Lawyers and Scribes such as rejected the counsel of God against themselves and would not be baptized of John They were such as were never prepared by a sense of their sin and of the danger they were in thereby but trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others They were such as thought themselves so whole as to need no such soul-physician as Christ They did not believe as the Publicans and Harlots did that they were in any such danger by reason of sin as John told them they were and that was the reason why they kept themselves out of the Kingdom of God whilest the others entered in as our Saviour told them Mat. 21.31 32. Verily I say unto you that the Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you And he gives the reason of it in the next words For John came to you in the way of righteousness and ye believed him not but the Publicans and the Harlots believed him Those who did believe John and were awakened with a sense of their danger because of sin they crouded as it were into the Kingdom of God while that impression lasted From the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force saith our Saviour Mat. 11.12 If
enquiry be here made that since some of the Jews in our Saviours time were by the Fathers teaching in those several ways before mentioned so prepared as that they followed Christ the good Shepherd when they heard his voice and so became his Disciples Then how came it to pass that all of them did not do the like who had the same means of learning and of being prepared To satisfie us in this enquiry it is necessary in the first place to take notice that there is a great difference between God the Fathers teaching of men and their learning of him he teaches all when yet but few learn of him Our Saviour saith every man that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me John 6.45 Not every one that hath heard him but every man that hath heard him so as to learn of him by receiving instruction from him in a way of preparation For these are two things and the one alas too frequently found without the other Though I taught them rising up early and teaching them yet they have not hearkned to receive instruction saith the Lord by his Prophet Jer. 32 33. there is a Teaching without a Learning Now the reason why they did not learn when they had the same teaching as others had and so the reason why it was not afterwards given to them as it was to the Disciples of Christ to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven is given by our Saviour Mat. 13. Because they seeing see not and hearing they hear not neither do they understand This peoples heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and they have closed their eyes lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them Which words signifie their refusing and more than a bare refusing of that assistance which God for some time vouchsafed them to prepare them for that farther grace and mercy which comes by Jesus Christ they signifie opposition and striving against their being helped and healed their endeavouring to throw off and to defend themselves against the means used by God to awaken them and to bring them to consider things in order to their cure and amendment of manners When God called they refused when he stretched out his hands to them they regarded not they set at nought all his counsel and despised all his reproof and hated knowledge as Solomon expresseth the ill carriage of such as would not in the least be prevailed with or wrought upon by such applications as God made to them with promise of further assistance of his Spirit and his Word if they would Turn ye at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you Prov. 1.23 and following Verses Our Saviour by the foresaid words in Mat. 13. does not I conceive so much intend to set forth the then present ill carriage of the Unbelieving Jews in not entertaining the Gospel as their obstinacy and untractableness under Gods former applications to them in a lower way of teaching than that of the Gospel For their carriage signified by those words of our Saviour is alledged by him as the reason why it was not given to them to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven as it was to his Disciples For they had opposed and withstood those lower beginnings of God with them by which he would have prepared them for higher vouchsafements And accordingly our Saviour applies that saying to their case Whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that which he hath God had been representing to them by his Prophets and by the Ministry of John the Baptist besides his secret operations upon their minds the danger they were in by reason of their immorality notwithstanding their outward Church-priviledges and notwithstanding their numerous Sacrifices and other ceremonial observances But they laboured to silence the clamour of their consciences when God had any whit awakened them and to lay their souls asleep and to persuade themselves there was no such danger did attend them since they were a People with whom God had entered into Covenant to be their God that they had Abraham to their Father to whom God had said I will be thy God and the God of thy Seed Though they were proud and covetous unjust unfaithful cruel envious and malicious Yet they leaned upon the Lord saying Is not the Lord among us None evil can come upon us as the Prophet speaks Micah 3.11 These things considered the reason appears plainly why all the Jews who at first enjoyed much-what the same means the same assistance from God to prepare them for a belief of the Gospel yet were not prepared for it as others of them were They refused nay they resisted Gods first assisting grace whereby he would have prepared them to receive farther assistance from him And when men do so and continue to do so God after some time of striving with them suspends that application which he formerly made to their minds to prepare them for farther assistance After which though they may see the Works of God and hear his Word and be found in the use of some external acts of Religion for fashion sake and to do as others do yet then they do not perceive understand or consider to any good effect upon themselves the end and design of them and so are not one jot the better for them but rather more stupid and sensless which the Scripture calls Gods hardening or blinding of men Not that I suppose the holy and good God infuseth any malignant or obstinate quality into their minds or wills for God does not tempt any man to evil James 1.13 but his hardening of them is either his with-holding that assistance by which his Spirit did strive with them to make them better Gen. 6.3 or permitting the evil Spirit more freely to tempt them the consequence of which is their growing worse and worse And thus he dealt with such like untractable and obstinate Jews in Ages long before the coming of our Saviour Psal 81.11 12. My People would not hearken to my voice Israel would none of me So I gave them up to their own hearts lusts not restraining them as sometime he had done And again Ezek. 24.13 Because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more Isa 6.9 10. CHAP. III. Of the necessity of those effects on the mind which God sometimes works by Principles of Natural Religion to prepare all those for the performance of the condition of the promise which do at all perform it AFter all this which hath past you will say perhaps What does all this discourse concern us who live after Christ is come or any who call themselves Christians and which do own Christ to be the true Messiah and Savior of the World The Jews
their own hurt and to think it inconsistent with his natural goodness being infinite not to save them if he can And therefore to undeceive men in this matter I have insisted the more on these things and to shew how agreeable it is to the Divine Wisdom for God to withdraw his assistance from men after they have obstinatery persisted in refusing and opposing it in its design upon them And if it be agreeable to his wisdom it cannot be disagreeable to his goodness for it is as well goodness in God to controul Vice as it is for him to encourage Vertue in what way and by what methods seems best unto him There is a great deal of difference between true love and goodness and fondness Men by fondness love many times without reason and bestow their favours more than becomes them But true and generous goodness governs it self by wisdom and prudence and so it doth in God The wisdom of God will not suffer his goodness to throw away his saving benefits upon those who by incapacitating themselves to enjoy them have rendred themselves altogether unworthy of them For it would disparage the wisdom and so the goodness of God the donor in case he should confer them upon such because his different affection to evil and good would be thereby in a great measure obscured and the sinews of his Government weakned Honour is not seemly for a Fool saith the Wise-man Prov. 26.1 As it will not become the Fool himself so neither will it become the wisdom of him that confers it to place it on one so uncapable of it as a Fool is CHAP. VII Of the after-assistance of the Holy Spirit which those receive who have been assisted already to perform the condition of the promise as new beginners in doing so THose who have been assisted by God to repent believe and obey and therein to begin their performance of the condition of the promise of pardon and life do still stand in need of his further assistance to persevere and to continue to do so to their lives end and to do it more and more excellently For as Believers hold their title in the benefits promised no longer than they continue to perform the condition on which the promise of them is made so neither do they continue in the performance of that condition longer than they are assisted by God to do so Now to persevere in performing the condition of the promise is as necessary for men to continue their title to the benefits promised as their performance of that condition at the first was to begin it For the promise runs thus He that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved Mat. 24.13 And to him that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end will I give power over the Nations Rev. 2.26 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity all the righteousness which he hath done shall not be mentioned in the trespass which he hath trespassed and in the sin which he hath sinned in them he shall die Ezek. 18.24 And as this perseverance is necessary for the reason and end aforesaid so is a constant and continual assistance from God to enable the Disciples of Christ so to persevere As the same power is necessary to continue the natural life which first gave being to it so is it in the spiritual life and state also Ye are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 And that which is very remarkable touching this After-assistance of which I speak is That a greater presence and more constant assistance of the Spirit of God is promised and vouchsafed unto men after they believe than they had before This appears by having the Holy Spirit given them after in such a degree which they had not before and by Gods dwelling and the Spirits abiding in them after who did not do so before First those who have believed the Gospel and sincerely delivered up themselves to the conduct of it in their lives do thereby come under that special priviledge of having the Holy Spirit given them to assist influence and quicken them and to carry on the work of sanctification in them This our Saviour promised John 7.38 39. Jesus cried saying he that believeth on me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water this saith the Evangelist he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive Acts 2.38 Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost Which promises we find made good afterwards in several instances Of the Believers it is said Acts 4.31 that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost And Acts 5.32 We saith S. Peter are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him And S. Paul to the Ephesians saith After ye believed ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise chap. 1.13 that is they were marked for his and distinguished from those that were not by his giving them the Spirit For if any man have not the Spirit of Chhist he is none of his Rom. 8.9 Sensual not having the Spirit Jude 19. It is true indeed those first Christians and others after for some time did receive the Holy Spirit in a sense that was peculiar to those times for the confirmation and propagation of the Christian Religion until it was well setled and had taken some rooting in the World As when they were in an extraordinary way enabled by the Spirit to speak with other tongues and to perform other miraculous operations as our Saviour had foretold they should For these signs said he shall follow them that believe in my name in my name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with new tongues c. Mark 16.17 A more full and particular enumeration of which extraordinary gifts of the Spirit scattered among the Believers of those times we have in 1 Cor. 12. But besides these the Believers then received in receiving the Holy Spirit an increase of gracious qualifications called the fruit of the Spirit such as love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness and temperance as the Apostle reckons them up Gal. 5.22 And in this sense the Holy Spirit hath been given to all true Believers ever since and is now For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his he is no true Christian Rom. 8.9 By mens having the Spirit then and by the Spirits being given them after they believe is meant I conceive a more constant and a more plentiful influence and effusion of the Spirit to change and renew them to restore them to the likeness of God to the spirit and temper of Jesus Christ than ever was vouchsafed them
towards their believing or by enabling them to believe at first Before men repent believe or begin to obey they have the Spirit at work in their minds indeed to suggest to their thoughts and considerations things of highest concernment to them and to incline them to look after them in time and before the day of grace and salvation is over and gone He then at times stands at the door and knocks and strives with every man and vouchsafes to such more and more of his assistance until they are enabled to believe who do not make fast the door against him but rather open to him and refuse not to be led on by degrees The more they attended to the teaching of the Father by his Spirit and the nearer they came to believe indeed the more frequent visits they had from him and the more assistance But after they have followed on so far and become so teachable as to believe indeed and sincerely to give up themselves to his conduct then he communicates himself more freely and more constantly to them than ever before in divine influence and assistance to root and establish them in the Christian Faith and Life and to carry them on further and further towards perfection This secondly is set out to us in another vein of Scriptures viz. such as speak of Gods dwelling in true Believers and sincere Christians and of their being the temple of the Holy Ghost of which nature are many texts Rom. 8.11 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 Cor. 6.19 2 Cor. 6.16 Eph. 2.22 1 John 3.24 and 4.13 16. By all which is signified the more constant residence of the Holy Spirit in and with men after they believe and become true Christians to assist them in their great affairs for their souls and another World as one that is never long absent from them but ready at hand at all times to help them in doing their duty and to overcome temptations unless by grieving him they cause him to withdraw himself If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him John 14.23 This giving of the Holy Spirit to sincere Christians to be always with them as his dwelling in them implies is not onely to help and assist them to persevere in doing onely so much as will entitle them to pardon and life barely as their performing the condition of the promise though but in the lowest sense of performance will do But Gods design in giving his Spirit to them after they have perform'd the condition in the lowest sense is to fit and prepare them for greater degrees of blessedness and glory for a higher and more glorious exaltation therein than a bare performance of the condition of the promise in simple consideration and in the lowest degree of performance will well bear Our Saviour came as he says that we might have life and that we might have it in abundance John 10.10 not barely to save us but to exalt us to such a height of glory that the glory and blessedness of his Body the Church might hold some good proportion with his own glory and blessedness as Head of it And to encourage true Christians to endeavour to excel in holiness and goodness in order to this there are other conditional promises made besides that of pardon and life upon condition of faith and repentance simply considered To such as give all diligence in adding to their Faith Vertue Knowledge Temperance Patience Godliness Brotherly kindness and Charity so that these things be in them and abound the promise is of an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1. And he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully 2 Cor. 9.6 And he that humbleth himself as a little child the same is greatest in the Kingdom of heaven Mat. 18.4 Besides the Vessels of Mercy will hold more or less glory according to their different capacities in grace and service as they are made larger or lesser By how much the more near Christians come to Christ in goodness by so much they are qualified to be the more near to him in happiness and glory But still as I say this greater and more constant presence of the Spirit is given to true Christians after they believe to carry on this great and glorious design of grace towards them to take them out of the spirit of this World and to lift them up in holiness and goodness thereby to make them capable of the greater glory and happiness To make this plain and familiar to our thoughts let it be considered that upon mens unfeigned believing follows immediately their adoption As many as received him to them he gave power right or priviledge to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name John 1.12 This is a very great advancement indeed and holds some proportion to that deep humiliation our Saviour underwent to prepare our way to it Now those whom God adopts to be sons those he adopts to be heirs also to his great inheritance and glorious estate so saith the Apostle if children then heirs heirs of God yea joint-heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 This being their happy case the blessed God and Father who hath adopted the Believers for his children and heirs gives them his Holy Spirit to be always with them puts his Spirit within them to tutor and discipline them and to give them thereby such breeding as may sit and prepare them for so high a relation and for so glorious an inheritance as that is which he intends to settle upon them Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts saith the Apostle Gal. 4.6 Saint Paul having spoken of the happy state which he with other the Believers expect and long for after the dissolution of this earthly tabernacle in which the soul now dwells 2 Cor. 5. saith in verse 5. Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit His giving them his Spirit to sit them for that inheritance is an earnest or pledge that he does really intend to bestow it upon them When he saith He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God we hereby see that it is the work of God by his Spirit to frame frame and fashion the Believers for that magnificent estate in the next World which is prepared for them and to which they are adopted This work of God upon them is to make them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Gal. 1.12 These Believers are those Vessels of Mercy whom he thus afore prepares unto glory Rom. 9.23 It is the benevolent work and business of our Lord and Saviour by his Spirit so to sanctifie and cleanse the
his operation in them when their minds and spirits become purified and refined from inordinateness of affection and unruliness of passion until by degrees they are brought in some good measure unto a likeness and conformity to the spirit and temper of Jesus Christ whose Scholars they are They that are joined to the Lord are one spirit They mind love hate and design the same things which our Saviour doth They participate of that love gentleness benignity and goodness which was so eminent in him the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness righteousness and truth Ephes 5.9 by which means they come to be in the world as he was in the world as S. Johns phrase is Hereby saith S. John we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us Joh. 3.24 It is so like him that it must needs come from him and if it be in us it is because he dwells in us If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us 1 John 4.12 When we love one another as Christ hath loved us when we are merciful as our heavenly Father is mercciful his love and goodness is so resembled by us as that it is perfectly discernible in us Moreover the Holy Spirit is given to the Believers to be with them to strengthen them with resolution and courage to hold on their course of holy living and cleaving faithfully to Christ notwithstanding all opposition and discouragement they may meet with from the World in doing so To this end they are strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man Ephes 3.16 For God hath not given them the spirit of fear but of power and love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 And not onely so but the Holy Spirit is given to the Believers to be always with them to maintain and uphold in them a comfortable and chearful frame of spirit and so to keep them from fainting when they are called to suffer for the sake of our Saviour or his truth or doctrine And it is doubtless from this effect among others of the Spirits abiding with the Believers that he is stiled the Comforter And for the same reason principally the joy which they have amidst their sufferings for righteousness sake is called the joy of the Holy Ghost 1 Thess 1.6 having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost And well may it be called the joy of the Holy Ghost because solid joy under such circumstances can proceed from no other cause but the Holy Spirits operation It is not the manner of the World as it is with Believers to rejoice in affliction in wrongs and injuries and hard usage from men but the contrary because they have no principle in them out of which such a thing should proceed And therefore our Savior saith to his Disciples My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you Joh. 14.27 The Holy Spirit can raise joy yea great joy in the souls of the followers of Christ when they suffer never so hard measure from the hands of men so long as they know it is for their faithfulness to their blessed Lord and Master who hath suffered and done so much for them as he hath done The Spirit of God can so order their thoughts within them that they shall not look upon themselves as disgraced thereby but as highly honoured by their Master by giving them both opportunity and courage to do him that honour when his adversaries would cast reproach and shame upon him and his Cause and all that appear for it And thus the Apostles when they had been beaten departed from the Council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus their Lord Acts 5.41 The Holy Ghost can suggest to them also that a great deal of good by such sufferings may be done to others in causing them to think the more and the better of the Christian Religion when they see with what chearfulness the Professors of it can suffer for its sake When the Thessalonians received the Word in much affliction and yet with joy of the Holy Ghost they became thereby ensamples to all that believed in Macedonia and Achaia and from them and their deportment in suffering for the Gospel the word of the Lord sounded out not onely in Macedonia and Achaia but also in every place their faith was spread abroad and talked of 1 Thess 1.6 7 8. It was this joyous deportment of the primitive Martyrs in their sufferings that tended so greatly to the increase and enlargement of the Church as History relates it did The Christians then were enabled to glory in tribulation of this kind in as much as they were guided to consider that this patient enduring without repining would give them experience of their sincerity and fidelity in cleaving to Christ and then this experience would give them hope such as should not make them ashamed through any disappointment but great confidence towards God of being accepted Rom. 5.3 4. And not onely so but also touching the greatness of the reward which is laid up in heaven for such a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Upon account whereof our Saviour bids them to rejoice and to be exceeding glad yea to leap for joy in that day when they should be persecuted for righteousness sake and have their name cast out as evil and the like When the Christians were enabled to suffer the spoiling of their goods yea and of their lives too not onely with patience but also with joyfulness when they were as sorrowing and yet always rejoycing whence was this And how can it be imagined that they should ever be able to do and to be so but that they were strengthened with all might according to Gods glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness as S. Paul speaks Col. 1.11 The Spirit of God and of glory then rested upon them as the other Apostle saith 1 Pet. 4.14 How came S. Stephen to stand with such an undaunted courage before the Council as if his face had been the face of an Angel Why it was because he was full of the Holy Ghost he had a mighty presence of the Spirit with him to enable him thereunto S. Paul learned by experience that as his sufferings did abound for Christ so his consolations by Christ did abound also 2 Cor. 1.5 that when he was weak then he was strong that he had a mightier presence a more powerful and comfortable influence of the Holy Spirit in times of great trials and sufferings for Christ than he had at other times And this experience of his made him so far from being afraid of suffering that for the sake of that wonderful comfort which was wont to come along with suffering he was rather glad when suffering came than any way dejected and cast down for it 2 Cor. 12.9 10. Most gladly therefore will I
the Holy Ghost to confirm the doctrine which was preached in his name by them who proved their mission from him by signs and wonders and mighty deeds which were done in his name though as I say the repetition of these be not necessary in every Age this having been done once for all in one Age as S. Jude speaks of the Faith once delivered to the Saints yet the inward assistance by the Spirit to cause the external assistances to operate the more effectually upon the mind is still necessary and is still continued in the Church For in this respect our Saviour by his Spirit as well as by his word is with his people always to the end of the World as he promised he would and as he promised his Spirit likewise should I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth John 14.16 It was this presence of Christ I conceive which S. Paul desired might be and continue with Timothies Spirit 2 Tim. 4.22 The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy Spirit In this part of my Discourse concerning Divine Assistance I have endeavoured to shew that our Lord and Saviour hath the power of dispensing Evangelical and Spiritual Assistances committed to him by the Father and that that is the reason why the Father is said to give such to the Son as have heard and learned of the Father And now this high advancement of the Son and his having all power in Heaven and Earth given to him leaves no place for us to doubt of his ability to assist those to the uttermost who do not make themselves uncapable of it by refusing to make use of it and of the Fathers preparatory assistance And truly all such have no more reason neither to doubt of our Saviours willingness to assist them than they have of his power if these few things following be but duly considered 1. That Kingdom Glory and Greatness forementioned and the power of dispensing aids and assistances is given by the Father to the Son for this very end among others that he might use and manage all for the bringing men such as the Father hath given him to perform the condition of the promise in repenting in believing and obeying the Gospel Acts 5.31 Him hath God exalted with his own right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins The father advanced him to that high honour and dignity that he might be a publick good to mankind in assisting them to perform the condition of the promise as he had been before by his humiliation for the obtaining of the promise upon that condition that so he might be a compleat Saviour in saving us as well from sin in the power and pollution of it as from the guilt of it He ascended far above all Heavens that he might fill or fulfil all things Ephes 4.10 That he might fully dispence and bestow whatever is necessary to the perfecting of the Saints and edification of the body of Christ The Apostle having said in chap. 1.20 21. that God having raised Christ from the dead set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power might and dominion and every name that is named not onely in this World but also in that which is to come and having put all things under his feet then in Verse 22 and 23. he says he gave him to be head over all things to the Church which is his body the fulness of him that filleth all in all He did not onely give him to be the Head of his Church but to be Head over all things to the Church to the use and benefit of the Church for the fulness of this power of his in the issue and benefit of it runs in to his Church for whom he received it and in respect whereof the Church is his fulness in a passive sense for it is he that filleth all in all as S. John saith of his fulness we have all received and grace for grace John 1.16 such a fulness as holds some proportion with the fulness of such a head all the fulness wherewith all and every one of his Church are filled is derived from him it is all of his silling and that as he is Head of the Church and Head over all things to the Church For he is not onely a political Head to the Church to govern it by Laws but such a Head also as resembles a natural head by way of influence conveying by his Spirit a vital and quickning power unto all the members to enable them to obey those Laws The whole body hath from this head nourishment ministred as S. Paul shews Col. 2.19 Upon which account S. Paul could say I am able to do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me But without him as our Saviour told his Disciples ye can do nothing Now if all this fulness all this power we have been speaking of was given to the Son was put into his hands for that end that he should use it and manage it in aiding and assisting those whom the Father hath given him to perform the condition on which pardon and eternal life are promised there is no question to be made of his willingness to use it to that end especially when we further consider that which follows 2. For in the second place he is as faithful as he is able faithful to use the fulness of his sufficiency for the ends and uses for which he received it He is faithful to him that appointed him in all his house Heb. 3.2 Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it 1 Thess 5.24 All saith our Saviour that the Father giveth me shall come unto me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out John 6.37 When he was leaving the World he could with all confidence say unto his Father I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do Joh. 17. And if he did thus in the day of his humiliation and temptation it cannot be thought but that he will likewise finish what the Father hath given him to do now in the day of his exaltation and power Why do the holy Angels sing Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength but because he faithfully useth them for those noble and worthy ends for which he received them Rev. 5. When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and received gifts for men saith the Psalmist Psal 68.18 he then gave gifts unto men saith the Apostle Ephes 4.10 When upon his glorious exaltation he had received the promise of the Father to wit the power of sending the Holy Ghost he presently pours it out upon his Disciples Acts 2.33 what he receives for us he will be sure to communicate to us If the clouds be full of rain they empty themselves upon the