of Governours as well as Governed which were all qualified for their offices by Gifts of the Spirit a 1 Cor. xii 28 29. Eph. iv 11 Apostles Evangelists Prophets Pastors and Teachers which were all only useful for the Church in this World and only for their benefit as united in Assemblies these Gifts being generally of that nature as that others were more concerned in them than they who had them Their Gifts were also of the same kind and many of them more principally designed for the edification of Believers than the conviction of Infidels Such were the gifts of b 1 Cor. xiii 2.xiv.2 knowing Mysteries Interpretation c 1 Cor. xii 10.xiv.26 of Tongues of d 1 Cor. xi 4 5 xiii.9.xiv.1 3 4 5.22 24 31 39. Rom. xii 6 1 Thes. v. 20 Prophesying and e 1 Cor. xiv 14 15. Praying especially of that office of the Eucharist f 1 Cor. xiv 16 where the Idiot had his set part assigned him and was to answer Amen These were the very employments of the Synaxes in that Age. And therefore certainly the Church thus united by such Gifts and Offices of the Spirit must needs have been that Body of them which joyned in the celebration of their publick Assemblies and considered under that very Notion as they were united in those Assemblies for which alone these Gifts and Offices were useful And plainly the Apostles design being as I have elsewhere observed in all these Discourses to prevent the falling away of the Persons to whom he writes either to Judaism or Gentilism or any of the Heresies which then began to appear there could be nothing more apposite to this purpose than to perswade them to keep to this external Body as united by the celebration of the same publick Assemblies whereby they were visibly and notoriously distinguished from those erroneous Societies and nothing more disagreeable than our Adversaries Notion of a multitude not a body of Elect not distinguishable from others by such notorious Characters as might be prudently useful by way of Argument § XII BESIDES the similitude of a Vine used by our Saviour was the same which had been used concerning the carnal Israel in the Old Testament Psal. lxxx 8 14 15. Isa. v. 1 7 xxvii.2 Jer. ii 21 Ezek. xix 10 Hos. x. 1 and therefore very fitly applyed to the Spiritual and Mystical Israel in the New according to that way of arguing which is so universally observed by the sacred Writers of the New Testament And then considering that the Christians made the Spiritual Israel a Society in the same sence wherein the carnal Israel had been so before nay allowed of something suitable to those very means by which they were confederated into a Society Instead of Circumcision they continued not only the Mystical Circumcision of the heart but Baptism which had been a means taken up by the Jews before the Preaching of the Christian Religion and which they thought more countenanced by the Prophets who had foretold the state of Christianity than Circumcision it self was and withal thought it more agreeable to the more Spiritual nature of the Christian Religion in comparison of the Jewish And so for Sacrifices though they rejected the bloody ones which they also thought discountenanced by those same Prophesies which had predicted the state of Mystical Judaism yet they allowed a Mystical Melchisedechian Sacrifice not only of the Morals of Religion but also under those very Elements and Symbols which they supposed predicted and Typified in those fame Writers who had spoken so disparagingly of the bloody Sacrifices Yet still these means of confederation though they were indeed more agreeable to the nature of a Spiritual Religion than those among the Jews were still external and therefore as proper for confederating an external Society as those were in the room of which they succeeded § XIII AND 4. It is further observable that though the immediate design of the Sacred Writers seems to have been to secure the Persons to whom they wrote in the external Communion of the Church in that Age wherein they wrote yet the reasons used by them for this purpose are such as concern the Church as a Church and so as suitable to the later Ages of the Church as those earlier ones wherein they were first used Indeed if the Argument used to prove their obligation to continue in the external Communion of the Church had been this that they could not otherwise partake of the miraculous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and manifestations of the Spirit than as those Gifts and manifestations were proper to that Age so the Argument would lose its force in succeeding Ages which could not pretend to those Gifts and manifestations But when I consider that those Gifts and manifestations in that Age did generally accompany the Graces of the Spirit and that therefore it is no good Argument to conclude that the Spirit was only given for extraordinary purposes because he was pleased to manifest himself by Gifts and Appearances that were indeed extraordinary when I consider that it is the Spirit as a Principle of Spiritual Life of which they are supposed to be deprived by falling away from that external Communion nay as a Principle of Spiritual Life to themselves when I consider that the Church being called Christ they are supposed to lose their interest in Christ and all his saving Graces by separating from the Communion of the Church to lose their interest in his Redemption to lose their interest in him by losing his Spirit which whosoever has not is none of his when I consider that by falling away from their Baptismal Obligations they are supposed to have forfeited all the advantages of their Baptism their illumination their tasting of the heavenly gift their participation of the Holy Ghost their tasting of the good Word of God and of the Powers of the World to come and so to have forfeited them as to need Renovation as intire as if they never had enjoyed them nay to have forfeited their whole interest in the New Covenant which sure respects the Graces of the Spirit more principally than his Gifts I say when I consider these things I cannot but think that the Graces here spoken of on these occasions are as well the Graces properly so called as the Gifts of the Spirit those of them which are to be ordinarily expected in all Ages as those which were proper to that those of them which are absolutely necessary for Salvation as well as those which were only more convenient for the more advantagious procurement of Salvation And sure we have reason to expect as that these ordinary necessary Graces of the Spirit should be continued to these later Ages wherein they are still as necessary as they were at first so that they should be continued in the same means of conveyance by which they were communicated at first And we have the rather reason to expect that they should be continued by the
same means of conveyance because if they be continued at all especially if they be continued by way of a Covenant which may afford such a right as may be Legally challenged it must be continued by virtue of those same Provisions which were then made there being no others pretended since nor indeed to be ever expected for the future And therefore if in those times these Graces of the Spirit could not have been expected out of the external Communion of the Church it must follow by the same proportion of reasoning that they are not to be expected now nor for ever § XIV 5. THEREFORE in order to this Mystical participation of this Grace which is not otherwise to be expected than by these Mystical means by which God himself has designed its conveyance it is absolutely necessary as far as an ordinary means can be so that we partake of the Lord's Supper This plainly appears from the Principles now mentioned 1 Cor. x. 17 For we being many are one Bread and one Body For we are all partakers of one Bread Where it is plain 1. From the coherence that the Bread here spoken of is no other than that which we receive in the Lords Supper 2. That the reason why we are said to partake of one Bread is because it is said to be broken before we receive it so that all are supposed to communicate of the same loaf 3. That by our communicating in this one Bread which must therefore be broken before we can communicate in it we are in a Mystical sence said to be one Bread as I have observed that Mysteries especially those of Divine appointment do not only signifie but also cause the things signified by them And 4. That because this â—read is also called the Body of Christ therefore our partaking of this one Bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word properly used concerning it when it is spoken of as meat is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Communion or rather Communication in this Body And 5. That it hence follows by the same Rule of Mystical reasoning that we are said to be one Body because we do communicate in one Body as we were said to be one Bread by our partaking of one Bread This plainly shews that all the advantage which we are to expect from Christ by being Members of his Mystical Political Body the Church is to be derived from our communicating in the Lords Supper because it is by this Communion that we become Members of this Mystical Political Body But it further appears from the reasoning of the Apostle in this place how it is that we are hereby made one Body which will very much conduce to the clearing of the Argument deduced from it and for shewing the necessity of our becoming Members of this Body 6. Therefore it is also further clear that the one Body of which we are made Members by communicating in this one Bread is no other than Christs Body This appears from the words immediately preceding 1 Cor. x. 16 The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ and besides from the reasoning as I have now explained it For the reason why we come to be made one Body by our partaking of one Bread being plainly the words of Institution in which Christ has called that Bread of which we partake his Body it plainly appears that the Body of which we partake by this Bread is no other than his Body and that his Personal Natural one This plainly appears because the Body of which he speaks when he calls the Eucharistical Bread his Body is plainly that which he says was broken for us according to St. Paul in this Epistle and which was given for us according to St. Luke 1 Cor. xi 24 Luk. xxii 19 But this cannot be understood of the Mystical but only of his Personal Body The consequence whereof will be that the whole Church becomes one Body Mystical of Christ by this participation of his Personal and Natural Body in the Lords Supper § XV AND because the right understanding of this will be of use not only for my present purpose but for preventing many popular misunderstandings in this matter particularly that of Transubstantiation and because the things I have to say on this Subject are such as at least I have not seen observed by others I hope it may prove not an altogether ungrateful divertisement to the Reader to endeavour an explication of this Mysterious contrivance which yet I intend to dispatch with as much brevity as the Argument will permit 1. Therefore the great design of Christ plainly appears to have been that Mystical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so much spoken of in the Mystical Philosophy of that Age and spoken of as the peculiar office of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This St. Paul himself speaks of elsewhere that he came to make all one Eph. ii 14 15 16. And our Saviour makes this the great design of his Prayer for his Disciples That they all may be one as thou Joh. xvii 21 See Ver. 11 22 23. Joh. xi 52 Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me So St. John expresses the end of our Saviours death to have been that he might gather together in ONE the Children of God which were scattered 2. This Vnion is expressed according to the way usual in the Scriptures to express the whole by an enumeration of particulars by his being in us and our being in him and indeed by this later only as a consequence of the former so that the very reason why we are said to be in him is because he is first supposed to be in us And the true reason of this consequence seems to be that cautious way then taken up of speaking concerning God that they would not allow him to be in any thing for fear of the confinement which weak imaginations might fancy from such a way of speaking To correct this error of the imagination they invented contradictory ways of speaking concerning him Porphyr Sent. 40. ex sententiâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They made him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 · Everyâ—where in regard of the dependence of things on him and yet no where in regard of confinement Of which kind this way of speaking also is that he is in us in regard of his influence on us and we in him in regard of the independence of his influences and the immensity of his presence 3. Therefore the Scripture speaking of Christ does distinguish him under two considerations as to his flesh wherein he suffered and as to his Spirit by which he was raised and glorified Luk. xxiv 26 Phil. ii 8 9. And it is observable that the raising and glorifying of Christ in the Spirit are grounded on his first having suffered in the flesh Accordingly our
Publication of his will to them but also to a perpetual Succession of Miracles to future Ages Such besides those now mentioned were those of the Shechinah over the Mercy seat the Oracles of Vrim and Thummim the ordinary Succession of Prophets the water of Jealously c. And can we think that God would prefer the Rules of Ordinary Providence before this infinitely more valuable Dispensation of the Gospel Could his care then be greater for a single Nation than it is now for the general Salvation of Mankind Or for a Law designedly Temporal than for his Everlasting Gospel Or for a Covenant confirmed by the blood of Bulls and Goats than that which has been confirmed by the invaluable blood of his dearest Son For Promises Primarily and Literally only relating to their settlement in a terrestrial Inheritance than those exceeding great and pretious ones of an exceeding and eternal weight of Glory I am sure the Apostle teaches us otherwise to argue Heb. x. 28.29 If he who broâ—k Moses's Law died without Mercy under two or three Witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace If therefore God valued the Law of Moses before that of the inferior Creation he must rather prefer that of the Gospel before it And therefore if Men may not expect the benefits of Providence without the Observation of the Ordinary Means and all possible Industry in obtaining them no more can they with any solid Prudent confidence expect the benefits of the Gospel without their utmost Industry for procuring the Ordinary Means appointed by God for that purpose Thus much concerning this 1. Particular that though our Salvation might be equally sure in it self yet we cannot be so well assured of it in the use of Extraordinary as of Ordinary Means CHAP. III. The Ordinary Means of Salvation confined to the External Communion of the Visible Church THE CONTENTS § I The Ordinary Means whereby we may be assured of Salvation must be Promises conveyed to us in a Legal way by the Solemnities of a Covenant § I.II. 2. The Ordinary Means of Salvation at least whereby we may be satisfied of it and receive any comfort from it are confined to the External Communion of the Visible Church And that the Episcopal Church under whose Jurisdiction any one lives is that Visible Church out of which these Ordinary Means of Salvation are not to be had by any whilst he lives under that Jurisdiction This to be proved in two Parts 1. That these Ordinary Means of Salvation are confined to the External Communion of the Visible Church § III.IV. This proved by three Degrees 1. The Ordinary Means whereby we may assure our Selves that we in particular have any interest in the Divine Promises is by assuring our Selves that we in particular are in Covenant with God § V. VI.VII.VIII.IX.X.XI.XII.XIII.XIV.XV.XVI.XVII.XVIII.XIX NOW the Ordinary Means of assuring us of the Divine pleasure herein either concerning his Supernatural Assistances or concerning his Indulgences to our ordinary failings or of his rewarding our weak and imperfect performances with Supernatural Felicities being all of them things depending on his Arbitrary pleasure can be no other than Promises and a Covenant solemnly confirmed to us That they are things perfectly at his Arbitrary disposal plainly appears from all that has now been said by which it has been proved that he is not necessitated to them by any Obligation of his naturally Beneficent Nature nor by any Relation by which he is necessarily related to us as our Creator and Governour which might further endear him to us And as for any further Relation to which he is not so naturally determined the very Favour of entering into such a one is as arbitrary as any thing else that depends on his free disposal and therefore cannot prejudg against the freedom of all the Favours consequent to it Now in Arbitrary things wherein God is as to any Obligation of his Nature indifferent which way he determines himself it is impossible to know which way he will be pleased actually to determine himself without actual and express Revelation And because the actual performance of these things must be future as well as present not only as to the Reward but as to the Assistances also without which we could have little security of the possibility of our Duty or consequently of the comfortableness of our Condition we can upon these terms enjoy no solid comfort unless we may be assured not only that it is his will at present but that it shall be also for the future which actual Revelation of his will for the future performance of good things to us is that which is properly called a Promise But it is certain that God does not multiply these Promises according to the multiplicity of the Cases of the Persons concerned in them And therefore the Promises being only General the only way how particular Persons can assure themselves of their Interest in them can only be by their Interest in that Body and Community to whom they are made § II AND because this Community does not consist of a particular number of Persons existing in one Age but is designed to comprehend the generality of mankind in a perpetual Succession and yet God is not pleased Ordinarily to presentiate himself through the several Periods of those Successions in dealing with the several Persons for whom he has designed those favours and because that it is impossible that any Covenant can be made on Gods part without a Declaration of his consent to the Promises on performance of Conditions on our part especially in matters of that nature of which we are at present discoursing that is in the dispensation of arbitrary Favours to which he is not obliged by his essential Goodness Therefore it will be necessary that this Covenant be made in general but that the admission of particular Persons to it be transacted the same way which is always thought reasonable in Contracts of the same nature where the Party Covenanting does not Personally appear by delegating and empowering sufficient Proxies who may Seal it in his name and by whose Act he may therefore declare himself obliged These things are certainly so essential to the Notion of a Covenant properly so called as that that consent which may in some Cases be presumed without them yet cannot for any of these defects deserve the proper name of a Covenant or infer that Legal Obligation which is the advantage of a Covenant above other Contracts which are not transacted with the like solemnity in order to our Comfort And therefore as this Conveyance of a right to Promises by a general Covenant is the only ordinary way whereby we may be assured of a Title to them so the application of this Covenant by these
are now confined to the Sacraments Before I prove this it will be necessary that some things be premised 1. Therefore I am not now considering the Sacraments as they are Ceremonies of initiation into the Evangelical Covenant or of continuing in it but as to the particular Benefits for which they are designed In the former regard I have considered them already And in that Notion there can be no doubt but that all the Benefits of this Covenant will be concerned in them For as they who have no Title to the Covenant it self can pretend no Title to any of the Benefits of the Covenant so they who are not validly initiated into it or continued in it by the External Solemnities appointed for that purpose cannot have a Legal Interest in the Covenant it self So that by this way of proceeding the Negative way of arguing is best secured That they who do not partake of the Sacraments as External Solemnities of transacting this Covenant can have no Legal Title to forgiveness of Sins or the Holy Spirit or any Supernatural rewards or any other such Benefits which God is obliged to do for us only by virtue of his Covenant But though this alone be very sufficient for my purpose yet that it may appear how exactly our general Hypothesis suits with the nature of the Sacraments themselves I shall here endeavour to shew that the loss to be susteined by the deprivation of the Sacraments I mean the loss of those Graces which the Sacraments Convey as well as signify to us by virtue of their Divine Institution is indeed as great as that of the loss of a Legal Interest in the Covenant it self at least incomparably too great to be hazarded for want of any condescension that is not Sinful So that although we should not consider the Sacraments as Solemnities of investing us into a Legal Right to the Covenant but only with relation to those Graces for whose conveyance they were immediately instituted and designed yet even these are so considerable as to oblige us to depend on them who are alone invested with the power of administring them And certainly the least prejudice that can be thought to be susteined by them who want the Sacramental Symbols rather than they will purchase them by unsinful condescensions must be at least the loss of those Graces for whose conveyance they were purposely designed by God as the only Ordinary Means by which Men might expect them Especially when the voluntariness of such a want is as well a crime as a neglect and therefore must so justly cut them off from all hopes of relief by Extraordinaries § IV NOR is this suitableness of this Hypothesis with the nature of the Sacraments and the great Probability which will thence follow that both of them must be true when they are found thus exactly to agree the only reason why I am willing to add this proof from the particular nature of the Sacraments themselves to that general consideration of them as Seals of the New Covenant The truth is I am unwilling to lay the stress of my present design upon a form of speaking so new and so liable at least to Dispute as that of the Sacraments being Seals of the New Covenant I am not so cautious as if I doubted whether this were true at least concerning Baptism that that is indeed a Seal of the New Covenent but because I had rather where I can have choice insist on Principles least liable to contradiction Nor yet could I think it altogether fit to wave that Argument both because it is so very apposite for our purpose and so easily granted by our Adversaries and so more likely to prevail with them than Arguments less questionable in themselves and because I think so much of it really solid as is necessary for our purpose Valid Baptism being only to be had from the regularly-Ordeined Clergy is a great Obligation to a dependence on them And if we only wave the word Seal we may take in the other Sacrament also under the general term of the Solemnities whereby the Evangelical Covenant is transacted and mainteined Which as it is equally subservient to our purpose so I have rather chosen to make use of it because I conceive it really more justifiable § V A SECOND thing to be premised is this That it is one thing to say that the Sacraments are Ordinary Means of Grace and another to say that the Ordinary Means of Grace are confined to the Sacraments By the former no more is implied but that worthy Communicants do in the use of these Sacraments partake of this Grace which may be very true though God had appointed other Ordinary Means by which the same Graces might be obteined by them who cannot have the Sacraments But if this were the Case the Negative Argument for which we are alone concerned at present would not hold that they who want the Sacraments must even in this ordinary way of proceeding be presumed to want the Sacramental Graces also For they who want one Ordinary Means may still make use of another for obteining the same thing where there is acknowledged a variety and even in this Case they might have comfort and confidence without the desperate recourse to Extraordinaries My design therefore being to shew that they must want the Sacramental Graces who want the Sacraments themselves upon the terms now mentioned this later thing must be that which I am principally obliged to prove I confess there are many Errors current among our Brethren concerning the virtue even of Sacraments in general especially where they think themselves obliged rather to contradict than to lay down any thing positive And I withal confess that they are their Errors of this kind which have rendred the true Notion of the Sin of SCHISM so very difficult to them Nor can it be thought strange that their Practice of Schism should unawares betray them into Errors on a Subject whose right understanding would go so far to recover them out of Schism and to let them see its mischief as well as its Sinfulness And though I think we have as great advantage against them on this Topick as on any and that their Notions herein are so clearly contrary to the sense of Catholick Tradition and Antiquity and so destructive to the true nature of Sacraments as that they come the nearest of any Paradoxes mainteined by them to their being Fundamental Errors yet that I may confine my present design within as narrow limits as can be allowed for dispatching it with accurateness and solidity I shall at present consider this virtue of the Sacraments no further than as it shall fall in with my design of proving that the Ordinary Means of Grace are confined to them § VI NOW even this confinement has appeared from the Principles laid down in the former Chapters For as it is certain that the Covenant of God with us is the only Ordinary Means whereby we may be assured
that particular gift of (h) 1 Cor. xii 10 discerning their Auditors Spirits whereby they were forced to confess that (i) 1 Cor. xiv 25 God was in them of a truth Not to mention their unwearied Zeal the great toils and dangers they endured in the employment the shame and contempt as well as the other inconveniences attending it which must needs possess their Auditors with very favourable thoughts of their Persons of their Sincerity and freedom from sinister designs and their hearty good will to them whatever they might think of the Prudence of their undertaking And if it was only this Extraordinary degree of Grace that was then sufficient for the Salvation of the Persons influenced by it that will certainly be no Precedent for what Men may Ordinarily expect now And where so much was undoubtedly extraordinary it will be very difficult to distinguish what was not so At least this will be impossible to be known from the bare Historical Records of these times wherein so many things in this very Case were extraordinary which will at least suffice to shew how unconcluding such Texts as these are must prove for our Adversaries purpose without either express Promises assuring us of their actual continuance or immutable reasons from the nature of the things Which will confine their Proofs within a narrow compass § XV AND this will the rather appear if it be considered further that according to the Notions of that Age and Nation wherein the Gospel was first Preached whoever had the Spirit of God was thereby thought immediately to be made a Prophet On this account Abraham is called a (a) Gen xx 7 Prophet and the Jews as they pretended all of them and they alone to have this Spirit so they do on that same account pretend to be a Nation (b) Cozri Part I. S. 95.103 109. of Prophets Nor are they only the modern Jews alone who make this challenge their Ancestors did the same So the Author of the Book of Wisdom among other effects of this heavenly Wisdom which with him is the same with the Divine Spirit reckons this that it (c) Wisd. vii 27 enters into holy Souls making them Sons of God and Prophets And it is very probable that the Christians who challenged to themselves all the Priviledges of Israel as being themselves that true Spiritual Israel for whom God principally designed these favours did accordingly challenge this Priviledg among the rest that they received not the Spirit by the works of the Law but by the hearing of Faith (d) Gal. iii. 5 and that this Spirit which they thus received by means of their Christian Profession made them Prophets according to the passage in (e) Joel ii 28 Joel thus applyed (f) Acts ii 16 18. by them And though the generality of Converts then being Heathens had not been favourable to Jewish Notions but those of the then prevailing Gentile Philosophy yet even so they had been inclinable to take this Divine Spirit for a Principle of Prophecy Every extraordinary Person was by them thought inhabited and influenced by a God to be capable of conversing with Spirits when thoroughly purged from matter to be conscious of the Divine Secrets to have a Theurgical power And what greater thing can be ascribed to true Prophets than these things especially when put together And it is observable that all the Language and Notions of Mystical Theology are borrowed from them which do plainly suppose that these Influences of the Spirit are Extraordinary and Prophetical in all Souls capable of receiving them And to this the Apostle seems to allude when he challenges in the name of all Christians to know (g) 1 Cor. ii 16 the mind of Christ and when from the nature of the Spirit he concludes the Spiritual man must know the (h) Ib. v. 10 11. hidden things of God because the Spirit of God with which he is endued is privy to them as naturally as the Spirit of every Man is privy to his own Secrets This discovery of the Divine Secrets is that which most properly belongs to the office of a Prophet So God is said to teach David the (i) Ps. LI. 6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and (k) Ps. xxv 14 the Secret of the Lord is said to be with them that fear him And this is a thing to which I suppose our Brethren will not so much as pretend § XVI ESPECIALLY considering 2. that there were some reasons why Persons in that Age should feel extraordinary emotions upon their hearing the Christian Doctrine preached to them which were certainly proper to that Age and cannot now be urged with any proportionable parity This was then to be made a proof of the Truth of that Religion whose proposal was seconded with such preternatural transports This was a proof of our Saviours veracity when they found the event so answerable to his Promises and Praedictions This proved him indeed to have a power over the Souls of Men and to have the disposal of those hidden influences of the other world when they found themselves so unaccountably animated and transported beyond what could have been expected from the rational evidence of the things themselves And therefore the Spirit thus given is said to be the (a) Eph. I. 13 IV. 30 seal of God the (b) Rom. VIII 23 first fruits of their new inheritance the 2 Cor. I. 22 V. 5 earnest of their promised future possessions a (d) Eph. I. 14 Rom. VIII 16 witness of God to the Spirits of them who had it that they were the Children of God And St. John tells them of this witness (e) 1 St. John V. 10 of God within them this Vnction (f) 1 St. John II. 20 27. that should teach them all things and particularly to distinguish between pretenders to the (g) 1 St. John IV. 1 2 3. Spirit whether their pretences were true or false And (h) 1 St. John IV. 13 hereby they might know whether they dwelt in Christ or Christ in them because he had given them of his Spirit By which it appears that their having the Spirit was more notorious to them who had him than their Interest in Christ. And accordingly the state of the new Covenant as it was then in the Apostles times is so described that God would (i) Joel II. 28 29. Acts II. 17 18. pour out of his Spirit on all flesh that all should see visions and dream dreams that (k) I. LIV. 13 all should be taught of God and so taught as that they should need (l) Heb. V. 10 11. no other Instructors that the word of God should dwell (m) Col. III. 16 plentifully in them in their (n) Deut. xxx 14 Rom. x. 8 mouths and in their hearts that even Tongues themselves should be no argument to them who (o) 1 Cor. XIV 22 believed but only to them who did not yet believe All which
parallel places in this Epistle particularly that in the 6th Chapter And concerning this it is expresly said that there remains no more Sacrifice even for the other sins of those who are guilty of this This plainly depends on what he had observed before (m) V. 11 12. concerning the several daily Sacrifices offered under the Law to which the one only Sacrifice of Christ was answerable under the Gospel From whence he argues that they who had forfeited their interest in this one Sacrifice must not expect any relief by any other because the dispensation of the Gospel affords no other no nor any other repetition of this one Sacrifice which is but (n) Chap. x. 26 once offered neither daily nor once a year as those under the Law nor that any further dispensation can be expected by them who fail of a relief by this because the only reason why the Law allowed a further dispensation was its own imperfection and insufficiency to perfect its observers but the Gospel is perfect and its Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ever Nay he further urges the Argument that even the Law it self allowed no Sacrifice for Apostatizers (o) Heb. x. 28 not from its Practice but from its Religion For the place alluded to is certainly that of Deut. xvii 2 3 4 5 6. especially compared with Chap. xiii for it is the worshiping of other Gods the transgressing the Covenant Deut. xiii 6 7 13. xvii 2 3 that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the despising of the Law Heb. x. 28 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. xi 2 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here Heb. x. 28 seems to allude to Deut. xiii 8 The two or three witnesses here are also mentioned expresly in that very case Deut. xvii 6 And accordingly he argues that they who offer the same despite to the Gospel not by transgressing its particular Precepts but by disowning the very Covenant of it which he supposes them to do who forsook the Christian Assemblies must be liable to a much sorer punishment Because hereby he (a) Ver. 29. trampled under foot the Son of God and counted the blood of the Covenant by which he was sanctified an unholy thing and had done despite unto the spirit of Grace For these are the priviledges of the New Covenant which he had been formerly so much commending above the old one of Moses which must therefore aggravate any contempt that may be offered to this beyond the contempt of the Law of Moses And accordingly this sorer punishment allotted for this contempt is greater than that of stoning which was the highest that was proper to be inflicted by the highest Legal Judicatories and which was the punishment appointed for this very crime the now-mentioned place of Deuteronomy Exactly the same way as our Saviour expresses the greater severity of the Gospel Punishment above the Legal by this same instance of (b) Matt. v. 22 fire after he had mentioned the inferiour degrees by two of the supreme Judicatories the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that of the Ordinary City Sanhedrims consisting of xxiii and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly so called the great Sanhedrim of lxxii at Hierusalem And indeed this punishment of fire is that the Apostles always mention as the punishment not only of those who finally persist in opposing the Gospel but also and more particularly of them who should Apostatize to them § XV Now by this way of reasoning it plainly appears that they who deserted the Covenant-Assemblies do thereby forfeit their interest in the Covenant it self nay are reputed despisers of the Covenant it self which exactly agrees with the Principles of which I have been hitherto discoursing and that they who do so have no interest in the Sacrifice of Christ nor in any other which indeed will cut them off from any benefit of Prayers if we consider that Sacrifices are only Solemnities of Prayers and particularly that Christs intercession does principally consist in his presenting to his Father the memory of his own (c) Heb. vii 25 27. ix 7 8 9 24 25. Sacrifice once offered for us here on earth as the intercession of the High-Priest among the Jews consisted in his presenting the blood of the Sacrifice which had been offered without before the Mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies and that this is the very Doctrine of this Author concerning it and that it is only on this account of the Sacrifice of Christ that any Prayers of men can expect to find acceptance so that they who are defeated of their expectations this way cannot expect that their Prayers should be accepted in the use of any other way § XVI I have the rather insisted on this place because of the very ill use which is made of it by many of our Adversaries for perplexing the Consciences even of them who continue stedfast to their Church-Assemblies to whom it appears that according to this exposition of it it will no way agree which certainly must needs be an acceptable piece of Service to those who have suffered by their common misunderstandings concerning it and must oblige all to keep close to the Churches Communion as they would secure themselves from being concerned in it and that our Adversaries may understand how far themselves contribute to the bringing Persons under the discomforts of this Text which themselves account so formidable whilest they endeavour to withdraw them from the Regular Church Assemblies Thus much at least seems certain that if any be concerned in this Text in our present Age these separaters are the Persons most likely to be concerned in it But that they may see how constant this Author is to himself in this Doctrine there is another Parallel place to this purpose in the 12th Chapter (d) Heb. xii 15 where having warned them that they should not fall short of the Grace of God which is the term whereby the Gospel is usually expressed to shew the danger of doing so he produces the example of (e) Ver. 17. Esau who though he afterwards desired to inherit the blessing was yet rejected and found no place of repentance though be sought it carefully with tears And if this be the case of Lapsors to be like the Transgressors of Moses's Law to die without Mercy to be like Esau to find no place of Repentance nay not to have their Prayers heard for it though they should be as â—arnest for it as he was for the Blessing though they should seek it carefully and even with Tears then I doubt it will be too likely to expound St. Johns words (a) 1 Joh. v. 16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of the sins which such Persons are guilty of who are in a state of Death but of that very sin of lapsing from the Church which at first reduced them into that state that he durst not encourage them to Pray for forgiveness of it with any confidence that they should find acceptance in
them for the shame is to be referred to the kind of suffering by the Cross with which it is also frequently joyned on other a Heb. xii ◠occasions rather than to the shame of their disowning him nay this very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is elsewhere ascribed to the Cross was no more than he had deserved This was indeed as the same Author elsewhere expresses it b Heb. x. 29 a trampling under feet the Son of God that is indeed a shewing the greatest possible contempt of him which is elsewhere c Psal. xci 13 Isa. xiv 19.xxviii.3 Matt. vii 6.v.13 Rev. xi 2 importance of that Phrase a counting the Blood of the Covenant by which they bad been sanctified an unholy thing that is indeed so far from being fit to expiate the sins of others as the Blood of the Covenant ought to do as that it needed expiation it self as it must needs have done if it had been shed for Crimes of his own that had justly deserved it a doing despite to the Spirit of Grace that is of the Gospel which they had received d Gal. iii. 2 not by the works of the Law but by the Obedience of Faith accounting that it self an evil and deceiving Spirit as they must needs have accounted it if it had been given them by the means of a Deceiver § XIII THESE are aggravations I confess unapplicable to our Brethrens Case Their departure from the Church does not imply their taking Christ himself for a Deceiver but their thinking them deceived from whom they depart in pretending to a Succession from him And therefore as far as this special aggravation of the crime is a particular reason of the severity of the Punishment so far I shall ingeniously confess that I think our dissenting Brethren unconcerned in it But then withall it will be fit to be considered that this disparity of their Case can only be as to the intention of the Persons not as to the nature of the Thing They who in those times and circumstances deserted the School of Christ to go over to his professed Adversaries must have been more sensible of this consequence of their doing so because the party to which they went did in terms profess to believe our Lord an Impostor which was the Principle from which all these dreadful consequences followed And their knowing this must needs have been an extreme aggravation of their Crime But as to the nature of the thing the Case is the same now as then Whosoever deserts Christ's School must necessarily imply that he is not such as he pretended to be that is not so Authorized from God as himself pretended for if they thought him so they could never pretend any reason why they should desert him And then all the other consequences follow out of Course For whoever pretends an Authority from God when he has it not must be supposed so wicked for doing so as that there is no other crime chargeable on him by his greatest Adversaries but it may then prove likely for him to have been guilty of it So that in this regard the Cases of our present Adversaries and those of the Apostles times would be like that of two Persons assisting a Rebel who should pretend a Commission from his Prince but falsely The one of them I suppose knows the falshood of his pretence the other does not but thinks that whilest he serves him he serves his Prince Both of them are alike guilty of the same Crime and both are as real Enemies to the Royal Authority and may do as much real mischief in prosecuting the Rebellion Only the Crime is not alike imputable to him who knows what he does to be Rebellion as to him who mistakes it for Loyalty So if they be as really Enemies to Christ whom our Adversaries mistake for his Friends as they were in the Apostles times who did not so much as pretend to be his Friends if they really disown the Chair of Christ in disowning his Regular Successors in that Chair though they pretend only to disown the Men who are at present possessed of the Chair the Crime of deserting this Chair now will prove as grievous as it was in the Apostles days though it be not now so imputable to the Persons guilty of it as it was then when they had better information However it will highly concern our Brethren by no means to neglect the real guilt whatever they may think of the imputation if for no other reason yet for this that the neglect will certainly aggravate the imputation Besides that the imputation it self may prove really greater than they are aware of § XIV THIS therefore being the guilt here spoken of let us now consider the Punishment of it from whence it will both appear how great the guilty is and how liable our Adversaries are to the Punishment suitably to their proportion of the guilt And this is rather implyed here than exprest when it is said to be so great as to need a Renovation For it is hereby intimated that all they enjoyed before is so totally lost by this fall as that nothing remained of it and if they would recover any of the advantages of the former state they must recover them by a new admission into that state and an admission so intirely new as if they never had been of it so little benefit they could expect from their former Admission even in order to the making their second Admission more easie and compendious Now this Renovation it self does also refer to Baptism So Baptism it self is expressly called the laver of Regeneration and of the renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. iii. 5 by which we are also said to be saved The same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in both places From these things therefore it follows that the Holy Spirit of our Master which is his internal Teacher which must open the understanding of his Disciples and make them capable of understanding his sublimer Doctrines his Acroamaticks which according to the methods of Teaching in those times were only intrusted with those of their Scholars whom they found to be of extraordinary capacities which method was also punctually observed by our Master himself I say it follows that this Spirit by which the Scripture usually signifies all the good things of the Gospel is so intirely lost by this lapse of theirs from their Baptismal State as that it is not recoverable but by a new admission into Christ's School again such a one as that was whereby they at first became his Scholars Which would be so far from fitting them for the Mysteries of Christianity for which it is the great design of this Author to perswade them to fit themselves in this whole Chapter that they might be the better capable of apprehending the mystical discourse concernig Melchizedec which occasioned this whole digression and which he immediately resumes in the following Chapter as that it would only be a
laying the foundation again a reducing to their beggarly Elements Heb. vi 1 as he elsewhere expresses it as rambling Scholars who have absented themselves from School are usually degraded lower than they were before upon their return to it But this holds more severely in learning Christianity than in the Discipline of ordinary Schools For because the things learned in ordinary Schools are such as are capable of being both learned and retained by the natural faculties of the Scholars therefore though their deserting one School and going to another must needs put them backward in the method of the Master whom they had deserted yet not so backward as to oblige them upon their return to him again to begin a-new at his first Elements But the Mysteries of Christianity are suppoâ—ed not intelligible otherwise than by the Spirit nor retainable without the help of the same Spirit which at first assisted to the understanding of them And therefore where this Spirit is lost as it is plainly supposed to be lost by deserting the School and following any other Master besides him all their former learning and all the new learning they may have since got elsewhere must on this supposition signifie nothing and therefore they who have left the Spirit of Christ must upon their return to his School be degraded to their first Elements and especially that of recovering the Spirit which they are by this means supposed to have lost This Exposition as it will make the reasoning of the Apostle cogent so it will be found exactly agreeable with his whole design as they will find who shall be pleased to compare them § XV BUT to make application of it to our Adversaries with whom I am at present dealing it is very observable that this Punishment thus expounded will not suppose any of those peculiar aggravations of their Case against whom this Author wrote but is plainly grounded on the contrivance of the things themselves and the manner of their establishment by Christ which will as exactly reach our Adversaries Case now as it did the Case of those Adversaries of the Apostles For the reason given here as that which brought this loss upon them is not so much their going over to the School of Christ's nototorious professed Adversaries wherein indeed their Case was different from that of our present dissenting Brethren but as their leaving the School of Christ by forsaking the Communion wherein they had received that Baptism which could only validly initiate them into that School and intitle them his Disciples which is also exactly the Case of our present Brethren And this very desertion of Christ's School is here supposed not only to be the merit though that were sufficient for my present design against our modern Adversaries who as they are thus far at least guilty of the same Crime in deserting the School of Christ so do thus far also deserve the same punishment that is they do equally deserve that degree of punishment which is proper and proportionable to this degree of guilt but the means on which this loss does naturally follow according as things are settled by Christ's own establishment He supposes that their falling away from Christs School must deprive them of his Spirit which is his internal instruction and so proper to his School and his Disciples as any inferiour means of Teaching are proper to ordinary Schools as well as the Teaching of the principal Master Whoever leaves one School to go to another does as necessarily lose the Teaching of the Vsher as of the Master of the School which he is supposed to leave And therefore as our Brethren by their deserting the School of Christ are supposed in the way of arguing used by this Sacred Author to lose the Title they had to Christ as their Master who by this means ratifies the Acts of his Successors in his Chair that they who are not of their School shall not be of his as the same thing was observed in Successions in other Schools from whence the precedent was taken in the first establishment of Christianity and as it is also necessary that they who have not Christ for their Master must also lose all the particular means he makes use of for communicating his instructions to his Disciples so necessary it is by this way of Arguing which this Author proceeds on that our present Adversaries as they are also guilty of the same desertion of Christ's School should also lose this internal Teaching of the Spirit which he makes use of for communicating his instructions to them For plainly the Spirit seems to have been designed to supply the Office of Christ as a Master And when the Holy Ghost is called a Paracletus I cannot think the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence he is called so to be only comforting or exhorting or interceding only but rather instructing I am much more inclinable to think this to be the Notion of it where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is mentioned and where the Disciples of Antioch are said to rejoyce Act. xiii 15.xv.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is for the instruction they had received from the Apostles concerning their disobligation from the Law of Moses I am sure this Notion of the word is most agreeable with that account which is given of him where he is called by this name Joh. xvi 12 13. that he should teach them all things and shew them things to come besides the many things which our Saviour had to say to them which as yet they were not able to bear but should be able when this Paracletus should come upon them And this seems to be the thing which this very Author had in his mind when he observes it as the Priviledg of the new Covenant that men should under it be taught by God St Joh. vi 45 Joel ii 28 29. Act. ii 17 18. 1 Joh. ii 20 that is no doubt by this Spirit which he would then pâ—ur out upon all flesh I need not mention that St. John appeals to this Vnction as that which should teach them all things to whom he writes and many other things which might have been observed from other passages of Scripture § XVI I shall at present only mention one thing more which as if it should prove true it will very much confirm what I am now proving so possibly it may not be ungrateful to the Reader and the rather so because it is not that I know of commonly observed That is that I verily believe this to be the true reason of Baptizing in the name of the Spirit because Baptism did admit Scholars to the School of the Spirit For as our Saviour himself professes that the Doctrine preached by him was not his St. Joh. xvi v.14 15. but his Fathers that sent him which will very justly intitle the Father to the Title of a Master in the School we are speaking of so he withal tells us of the Spirit whom he
designed to send that he should take of Christ's no doubt of his Doctrine as he immediately says that whatever the Father hath is his and he had elsewhere told us that it was his Doctrine which he had received from the Father and shew it unto them So that Baptism in the name of the three Persons will imply an admitting Disciples not as the ordinary Baptisms of those times did pretend to do only to some eminent men who were to be the Masters of the Sect to which Baptism did admit them but to God himself in all the three Persons who yet were not to be taken for three Masters but one For as our Saviour by preaching his Fathers Doctrine is said to glorifie his Father in owning him as the original Master so the Spirit by inculcating the Doctrine of the Son is said to glorifie the Sun by still owning the Son as the Master of those instructions which were thus inculcated by him And as the Son 's receiving his Doctrine from his Father does not derogate from his enjoyning the Title of a Master also so neither will the same reason of the Spirits receiving his Doctrine from the Son hinder him also from the same Title of a Master And this I take indeed to be the useful reason why it is so frequently inculcated by our Saviour that he and his Father were a Joh. x. 30.xvii.11 22. one and by St. b 1 Joh. v. 7 John that these three are one not so much to prevent any danger of Polytheism for that was a thing the Jews to whom he preached were not so much in danger of nor to prevent any scandal that the Jews might have taken up against the Christian Religion as if it had by this means countenanced a thing to which they were so averse for it might have been shewn that this Notion of the Trinity was not new to them and that our Saviour asserted nothing more concerning it than what had been asserted by their most eminent Hellenistical Doctors and during our Saviours own Life time he did not speak things so clearly in this matter as his Apostles did afterwards but to prevent all danger of taking them for three Masters and under that pretence erecting three Schools and making Divisions and Emulations among their Scholars which they were otherwise very likely to have done in consequence to the Notions then current concerning these Baptismal forms And accordingly the Gnosticks who by living nearer to those times had better means than we have now of knowing the meaning of the Forms and Customs when they Baptized into the name of the Mother of all Iren. L. 1. c. 18. seem also to have owned that Mother for their Mistress on account of those Seeds by her infused into them by which they pretended to come by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that knowledg of Mysteries they boasted of And if this were so it was very agreeable that they who had thus deserted Christ's School should also be deprived of the Instructions they might have received not only from Christ himself but also from the Holy Spirit who was to preach nothing to them but what he had received from Christ. § XVII BUT this will appear yet less strange to them who shall be pleased to consider how often the Spirit is called by the name of Christ himself I shall elsewhere have occasion to produce instances and therefore shall forbear them now I only observe at present that if this be so the Mastership of the Spirit is no other than the Mastership of Christ. And so indeed it should seem that the Spirit is to Christ as the Shechinah was to God in the Tabernacle and the Temple and accordingly these Shechinahs or visible appearances are more frequently ascribed to the Spirit than to any other Person of the Trinity And indeed when the Spirit is called the Spirit of Glory and of Christ it seems to be called so as being indeed it self the Glory by which Christ manifests himself in the Soul As therefore God himself was said to be present with the Israelites when his Shechinah was present with them and as he is said to remove his presence when that was withdrawn or removed from them so according to this way of explication wheresoever the Spirit of Christ is present Christ himself will be present also And therefore if they who desert his School must thereby lose the presence and Mastership of Christ they must by necessary consequence lose his Spirit also Now the deserting of the School of Christ I have already shewn to concern our present Adversaries as nearly as it did them who lived in the times of the Apostles § XVIII TO proceed therefore in my Explication of this passage of this Divine Author I now come to that which is indeed most difficult in it That is the impossibility of renewing such Lapsers as are here spoken of to Repentance And here it will be convenient to shew 1. What is meant by renewing them to Repentance And then 2. What is meant by the impossibility of it As to the former we have already seen that the fall here described is a fall from their Baptismal state and therefore the renewing them implying a putting them in the same state wherein they were before the renewing here spoken of will be most obviously intelligible of a restitution of them to the state of their Baptism And not to lay any stress on the Critical importance of this term Renovation I have also shewn that Renovation of the Spirit is peculiarly ascribed to Baptism though it be given there to Persons who never had it before as it is a Renovation of that Spirit which Adam had in his Innocence and we might all have had from him if he had continued in his Innocence And that the Renovation here described is said to be to Repentance that also very well agrees with this Notion of our being hereby restored to the state of Baptism For Repentance and Baptism are always joyned together Act. ii 38 Repent and be baptized every one of you says St. Peter And it seems to have been the design of the common Baptisms there used to expiate them from their former impurities as well as to admit them to a purer way of living for the future So St. John Baptist before his Baptism preaches Repentance and he charges those who were baptized by him to bring forth fruits worthy of Repentance And the same was the design of the lesser Mysteries among the Heathens to which Baptism was thought answerable among the Christians They were Purgative as the greater were Perfective These things therefore being thus supposed both these terms of Renovation and renewing to Repentance will be conveniently intelligible of Baptism it self And so the force of the Argument will be that a Restoration to their Baptismal state that is their being again admitted as Christ's Scholars and so the entitling them to the priviledges of Christs School among others that of
as in little Anger 's in men though they be violent for the time yet they soon pass away and leave no great disturbance on the mind of him that is angry but in great ones the very mind is disordered and so the transports become more lasting as well as more vehement and the Person who is supposed to be so angry is also made by it more implacable and less capable of accepting any terms of reconciliation so the Scripture represents the Anger of God himself That the anger of men was thus expressed according to the form of speaking used in those Countries we have instances not only in our Saviour a St. Joh. xi 33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. xiii 21 when he is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in b Psal. cvi 33 So Dan. ii 3 vii 13 Job vii 11 xxi 4 Psal. lxxvii 3 cxlii 3. Moses in the Old Testament it self who is said to have been provoked in his Spirit when he spake unadvisedly with his lips That it is hence also applyed to God instances may be seen in c Gen. vi 6 Genesis and d Is. lxiii 10 elsewhere And generally whenever this expression is used God immediately resolves on some severe temporal Punishment to be inflicted on the Persons who had thus provoked him and that so peremptorily as that even their Penitence it self should not prevail with him to change his resolution Then he makes his Decree and sometimes confirms it with an Oath Thus in Genesis e Gen. vi 3 when he had resolved that his Spirit should no longer strive with them he immediately resolves that their days should be an hundred and twenty years that is that that should be the respite he would allow them before the deluge And elsewhere when his Spirit is said to be grieved then follows the mention of the judgment which elsewhere he inflicted on them who had so provoked him And above all other sins for which God is said to be thus angry after the Law was settled Idolatry is by Maimonides observed to be the only one Mor. Nev. Part. i. cap. 36. And that we have seen in Deuteronomy to have been so described not as a violation of a single Precept only but as a breach of the whole Covenant And it is very observable further that whatever this might mean in the literal and immediate sense according to the custome of the like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on other occasions ascribed to God yet the Hellenistical Jews who Allegorized their Law and who had the Notion of this Spirit of God as a subsistent Being and frequently take for less occasions than this was of bringing in their Allegorical senses were very likely to ascribe these passages to this Spirit as a distinct subsistent Being And indeed these other two subsistences of the Son and Spirit are so described in the New Testament and in the passages of the Old applyed to them by the most ancient Fathers no doubt from the Cabalistical Mystical Expositions then received among the Hellenistical Jews as that it could be no great violence to apply them this way on supposition that a Mystical sense was to be allowed besides the Literal which was a supposition that seems to have been generally approved by these Hellenistical Jews of whom I am now discoursing Thus as the Son is taken for that intrinsick Wisdom of the Father in the Proverbs which he is said to have possessed from the beginning Prov. viii 22 and which the Fathers do accordingly make it as necessary that he should have possessed it from the beginning as that he should have been wise from the beginning so the Holy Spirit is by the Apostle made as intimate to God as the Spirit of a man is to a man For so he argues 1 Cor. ii 11 Who knoweth the secrets of a man but the Spirit of a man which is in him Even so no man knoweth the things of God but the Spirit of God As Properly therefore as the Spirit of a man is said to be grieved and disturbed when the man himself is grieved and disturbed so properly this subsistent Being may be said to be grieved and disturbed when the Spirit of God is said to be so And as when a man is said to be excessively grieved it is all to one purpose whether we say that he himself is grieved or that his Spirit is so because the grief of the man is supposed to be in his Spirit so also by the rule of the same proportion when God is said to be excessively grieved we are to understand all those places of a grieving of his Spirit as properly as if it had been expressly mentioned § IV AND it is farther yet Observable that in this way of speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is pleased to express himself as if he were under the same transport of humour as men are when they are in those Passions Thus in the Parable of the unjust Judg he is supposed to hear the Prayers of his People as well to avoid the trouble of being wearied by them Luk. xviii 5 as for the reason of the thing it self And particularly in this very Case of great provocation of his Spirit he is described as if he suffered the same transports as revengeful Persons do when they are under the like disturbances Thus as revengeful Persons ease themselves of their revengeful humour by executing their desired revenge Isa. i. 24 so God is said to ease him of his Adversaries to ease himself of this disturbance of his Spirit by inflicting that punishment on them which they had so justly deserved from him And in the dramatick way of acting these Passions which is so familiar with the Prophets he is described as implacable and as much bent upon revenge and delighted in it as revengeful Persons are when they are under the like disturbance No doubt his meaning is thereby to put us in the same expectations from him as we should naturally have from a revengeful Person under his highest transports and to assure us that though he himself felt no such transports as are there described yet he intends to deal with Persons so threatned by him exactly as such Persons would do who really felt such transports And therefore as such Persons who are so disturbed by great provocations at length resolve to relieve themselves by executing their desired revenge and when they have done so resolve also that no Prayers of their Adversaries shall appease them but that they will for the future as much insult over their miâ—eries as they have hitherto pitied them the like dealing we have reason to fear from God when his Spirit is the same way provoked And this seems to be the most natural account how this sin against the Holy Ghost comes to be unpardonable § V NOW there are two influences of the Spirit of God that without us in miraculous performances and that within us in secret emotions
Being by this concatenation of Spiritual Beings in the several parts of the World so that the several influences are to be taken for God's because it is from him that they originally proceed by which means also the contempt of them will also reflect on God himself How they are thus contrived that this may follow may be seen in Apuleius and in Philo's Explication of Jacob's Ladder Apul. de Deo Socratis Philo. Hierocl de Provident Fragm apud Phot. Biblioth num 251. And indeed there are who make the very Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be properly taken from the care of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within us rather than from that whereby the World is governed in general But the passage of Seneca an Author of the Apostles Age is very considerable to our purpose where he tells us that a holy Spirit which he calls a God is in us and that he deals with us as we deal with him if we deal ill with exactly as the Psalmist with the perfect man thou shalt be perfect Psal. xviii 26 2 Sam. xxii 27 but with the froward thou shalt learn frowardness Besides this there is also another way according to the Platonical Hypothesis how this participation of the Spirit may intitle us to the special Providence of God And that is that as long as men were good God kept the Government of the World in his own hands but as they degenerated so he was thought to leave it to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he then took no further notice of it I might have shewn how this Notion seems also to have been taken up by the Primitive Christians See Hackw Apol. for Provid Act. xvii 30 Act. xiv 16 Luk. i. 68 78. that this was the reason why they thought the World to have decayed that for the time past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he took no notice of the mannes of men but suffered them to walk on in their own ways that he had now looked down from Heaven and visited his People And possibly this might have been the reason why they expected the end of the World that is of that Iron Age of it and waited for a new heaven 2 Pet. iii. 13 and a new Earth wherein righteousness was to dwell For the Golden Age was immediately to succeed the Iron And the reason that made the Golden Age so happy was that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epinomid apu Euseb. Pr. Eu. L.xi. c. 16 as Plato calls him was to take the Government into his own hand And therefore seeing Christ whom they took for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had the Government of all things now committed to him by his Father it was very reasonable for them suddenly to expect those happy times which according to this Hypothesis were consequent to such a Government This seems to have bâ—â—n really the thoughts of the Author of the Sibylline Oracles and the Emperour Constantine in expounding the Eclogue of Virgil to this purpose And this must also make the sins committed under the Government of Christ to reflect upon him and would consequently concern him more particularly to take care to see them punished according to their desert § XVIII AND if the violation of particular Laws by this constitution of things be so great a sin and in which the Spirit is so concerned to see them punished who are guilty of that violation what shall we say of casting off the Legislative Power it self and disowning the Power which necessarily requires Subjection to Subordinate Governours as well as to the Supreme What of not only neglecting to perform the Conditions of it but casting off their Baptismal Covenant it self by which they were obliged to perform those Conditions What of dispossessing the Spirit of his interest in them not only by frequent grieving and provoking him in acting contrary to his Suggestions but also by a wilful neglect of those means which himself had appointed for continuing his possession of them These are certainly Crimes of the highest nature and most severely punishable by the Principles of Government And yet of these they were certainly guilty who in the Apostles times at least deserted the external Communion of the visible Church This will more particularly appear if we consider § XIX 4. That the whole Constitution even of the Government of the Church in that Age was Theocratical All the Officers of the Church were invested in their Office by the Holy Ghost himself He it was who qualified them for their Offices by his extraordinary supernatural gifts Eph. iv 11 He gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers And he it was who empowered them to exercise those Gifts by noting the very particular Persons who were to be empowered to them who had the Authority of committing that Power to them either by giving their Ordainers the Gift of discerning Spirits or by signifying his pleasure to them either by appointments as when he was consulted by Lots or without appointment by some sensible appearance relating to them as he did also afterwards in the Cases of Alexander Bishop of Hierusalem and Fabian of Rome It was he therefore that made the Bishops of the Church And so for all the Ecclesiastical Offices they were then generally performed by peculiar Inspirations 1 Cor. 14. their Praying their Prophesying their celebrating the office of the Eucharist their Spiritual Songs and Hymns their very Interpretation of what had been by others delivered in strange tongues In the very Prudential management of their affairs they had also particular directions from the Spirit Act. xiii 2.4 viii 29 x. 19 xi 28 29. xvi 6 7 10. xviii 9 xix 21 xx 23 xxi 4 11. xxvii 22 24. He usually told them where they should Preach and where they should not who were particularly to be chosen out for the employment he had for them and what should be the success of their undertaking And if in this regard it had been a fighting * Act. v. 38 against God for even the Pharisies themselves to venture to oppose themselves to the Apostles how could it have been less than a rebelling against the same God the Spirit for their own followers to have deserted them This I take notice of that none may think that the Author to the Hebrews should speak so severely against the desertors of their publick Assemblies And though indeed the extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit be now ceased nay and several also of those extraordinary qualifications which were necessary for that Age peculiarly and could not then be gotten by the Persons who wanted them for the discharge of their Office in the use of ordinary means yet as long as the Holy Ghost is the Governour of the Church that is indeed as long as Christ himself is so who governs by the Holy Ghost as the Shechinah of his Throne
other it will not be difficult to determine which of the two must prove invalid The Church which endeavours to restore such a Person is supposed to be only equal with the Church which has rejected him and therefore can have no Authority to reverse her censures And therefore as God is not obliged to ratifie that act of hers in regard of her Authority so he is obliged to disanul it as he is the common Governour of all the Churches and as he is thereupon obliged to maintein Discipline and that correspondence between the Churches which is so necessary for the preservation of Discipline § XXV HENCE it follows 4. That all that can be done by other Churches receiving a Person separated from the Communion of his own Church can only be to judg of his case not so as to oblige the Church to which he belongs originally to stand to their judgment but only so far as concerns their own Jurisdiction They can judg whether they be in conscience or for the maintenance of their common correspondence obliged to ratifie their censures within their own respective Jurisdictions that is they can judg concerning the validity of the censures whether they be grounded on a cause properly belonging to the Authority by which they were censured and whether they have reason therefore to presume them valid before God that is indeed whether they do really cut him off from Catholick Vnity And in case they find the sentence pronounced against him in his own Church invalid in it self they may then receive him to their own Communion yet so as that they do not pretend any Authority to reverse the sentence pronounced against him in his own Church but only to declare the original invalidity and that only with relation to their own obligation to confirm it within their own Jurisdictions nor pretend to restore him to the Catholick Vnity which he had lost by the censures which had been passed upon him in his own Church but only receive him as an acknowledgment of his uninterrupted right to Catholick Communion and of their own obligation as parts of the Catholick Church to admit him to their own Communion This certainly they may do by their own Authority without any the least encroachment on the Authority which had originally passed the censure not as superior to that Authority but only as not subject to it § XXVI AND this seems actually to have been the case of the Western Church in the cause of Athanasius Whilest he was charged only with Canonical matters they were willing to hear what might be said against him and in the mean time to suspend him from their own Communion But when they found partly by the notorious conviction of the disingenuity of the accusations of this kind as in the charges of the suborned whore and the cutting off the hand of Arsenius and prophaning the sacred offices at Mareotis and partly by their delays and evasions of this kind of tryal that this was not the thing indeed insisted on how much soever it was pretended but that it was rather an artifice made use of for the subversion of the common faith professed by him they must then look on such censures as passed upon him rather for his Faith than for the Ecclesiastical crimes which were pretended Wherein if they judged right the censures must have been essentially invalid on two accounts both as to the cause for which they were inflicted and as to the Persons by whom As to the cause for which they were inflicted For they could not believe that God would deprive him of Catholick Vnity only for mainteining the Catholick Faith which was one of the principal foundations of that Vnity And as to the Persons by whom they were inflicted who being Hereticks were uncapable of being Bishops and consequently of any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction besides that they were not obliged to maintein any correspondence with Hereticks and therefore could not be confined to Canons in dealing with them the Canons being only terms of correspondence Though in the case wherein our Adversaries are concerned there is much more reason for the confinement of this power of other Churches For the power is much more absolute which particular Churches may challenge over their particular Subjects than that which Provincial or National Synods can pretend to over particular Churches And therefore the obligation to confirm their censures must be proportionably greater on account of the common correspondence § XXVII NOW if this be so then it will plainly follow that the Governours of particular Churches do as often deprive of Catholick Vnity as they deprive any really of the Communion of their own Churches and that all that other Churches can do cannot really unite any to the Catholick Church who has been separated from any particular Church by a just Authority without the consent of that Authority by which he was separated and that if their receiving such a Person to their Communion do him any good it must be only in such cases wherein he was really never deprived of a right to Communion even with that Church whose actual Communion has been denied him The only thing remaining further for settling the Discipline of the Church on a solid foundation can only be to see in what cases the censures may be presumed valid and wherein it may therefore be known that the restitution is invalid and unsafe to be trusted and whether any relief may be expected thence by Persons in our Brethrens circumstances If either by any censure of their Superiors or by their own resistance and separation from them they be really separated from their own Churches to which they were originally related they must consequently be separated from the Vnity of the Catholick Church nor can they be restored to it but by being reunited to their own particular Churches and that by a reconciliation as visible as their separation And for clearing this that their separation must needs be a real separation even in the esteem of God himself I desire it may be considered § XXVIII 5. THAT whatever is necessary for the design of Gods establishment that he must by his design be obliged to ratifie whether he has expresly said he will do so or no. Nay indeed there can be no necessity that he should expresly warn them of it who are already sufficiently convinced that this is agreeable to his design For it is certain that God cannot design an end without the means nor be ignorant of what is requisite to his design as a means nor fail where the means belong to his part of the Covenant to see them performed as I have already shewn that it is his part to perform the benefits of the Sacraments None but he can immediately give the Spirit and apply the forgiveness of sins which are there promised But yet he is obliged to do so when the Persons Authorized by him do it in his name and with reference only to that end for which he has