own Righteousness was very Sand and by no means to be built on He Convinced me of Righteousness and that of another make than my own yea or than the Angels Being beat off from trust in my own Righteousness and coming to some knowledge of Christ's I was like to stick in the place of the breaking of Children I was very near to Miscarry in the pangs of the new Birth And he the self-same Spirit brought me forth He brought Christ to my heart and my heart unto Christ he was to me a Spirit of Faith of uniting Faith joyning Christ and my Soul as Head and Members be joyned Of Justifying Faith and such as through the Law of Grace makes Christ's Satisfaction for Sin as beneficial to us as if we our selves had payed our Debts unto God Such a Faith as put me into the City of Refuge and secured me from the pursuit of the Avenger I humbly hope so at least When this was done and I was born of Water and of the Spirit then was I all in haste for a heart much more clean and more after God's heart And he the same Spirit was unto me a Spirit of Burning as Fire mollifies Iron he softned my heart more than ever in former times and melted my will into God's Will and united it to fear his Name After this it self still was I a short-sighted Creature and in pain to know more of God and Christ of Sin and Grace of my Hearts deceits and Satans wiles of Heaven and Hell And he it was that in and by his Ordinances anointed my Eyes and made me from that time to this to make some Progress in Knowledge To grow in it both Extensively and Intensively Several times have I been in danger of being deceived by false Teachers by the craft of men lying in wait to deceive And he the only unerring Guide kept my foot his word it was that I heard behind me saying This is the way walk in it Many is the sad time that I have back-slidden and foully fallen And by him hath it been shewn me whence I was fallen he it was that came and said Return thou backslider He it was that let me not to rest till I had gone forth and wept bitterly and laid hold on him that healeth backslidings Full often I have had fightings without and fears within sorrow upon sorrow And he hath been a Comforter indeed he hath taken of Jesus and shewn me that which hath made my state presently tolerable and by and by comfortable It is never very long together but I am at a loss what to do for both Life Motion and Direction And he alone it is who makes me feel any spark of life in me makes me stir and move in Willing and Doing and guideth me in Judgment teaching me his way When I am most afflicted and need most of all to Pray even then oftentimes do I least of all know what to pray for And he it is this holy Spirit himself that maketh Intercessions in me as it is Rom. 8.26 and maketh me to Pray in him as it is Jud. v. 20. More plainly he enlightneth and he fortifieth my puzled and dejected Soul He Directeth my requests so that I ask Bread and not a Stone Fish and not a Serpent He Enflameth my Desires so that by the Fervence I discern God's Acceptance as of old Sacrifices were manifested to be acceptable by the firing of them He emboldens also my Suits unto God so that while I adore him as my Soveraign I trust him as my Father by Adoption While I am prostrate before him as a rebellious Subject with a Rope about my Neck I have the humble confidence of a Child of his in my heart and I do rejoyce fiducially while I tremble most Self-condemningly Briefly until such time as I got acquainted with him never could I heartily call God the Father my Father nor call Jesus Christ my Lord. I am sure I could do neither according to the Will of God Well might my dear Redeemer call this Holy Spirit God's good gift Luk. 11.13 Well might the Man after God's own Heart exclaim Take not thy holy Spirit from me Psal 51. And well might the great Apostle pray for his Ephesian Children that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory might give unto them the SPIRIT of WISDOM and REVELATION in the knowledge of him Eph. 1.17 18. And well will it be for me and all my dearest ones if as above all things I Pray we shall holily walk after this good Spirit Not GRIEVING his Divine PERSON dwelling in us not QUENCHING his gracious MOTIONS made in us not RESISTING him in any of his ORDINANCES instituted for us For by his blessed Operation it is that we have our Communion with the FATHER in his Love with the SON in his Grace and with Himself the Coessential SPIRIT in his Consolation Look as the Son of God is Mediator for us unto the Father unto himself as he is God and unto the Holy Spirit unto the whole Trinity in like manner is the Holy Spirit the one common Operator or Worker for us and Comforter of us from the Father from the Son and from Himself from God in Unity He is named the COMFORTER and as I conceive comparatively greater than Christ was in the days of his Flesh on Earth But how doth he comparatively so much more comfort the Children of God This he doth by acquainting them much more with the Love of the Father By giving them to see more fully that the Father himself loveth them as our Lord speaks Joh. 16.27 And by discovering unto them much more the grace of the Son the super-excellency of his Person and of his Purchases By glorifying of him in their hearts so as he never was before Joh. 14.15 that is the very word which Christ useth He shall GLORIFIE me And lastly by setting before their Eyes much more his own like infinite Love Grace and Condescention Admirable condescention to be made less in Office than the Father and Son with whom he is Equal in eternal Essence And this most freely and of choice for our good and so great good as hath been foreshewn And that although he well foreknew what we were and what cross pieces we should prove and how we should GRIEVE him PROVOKE him and QUENOH many Millions of his most holy Motions in our hearts defile his Dwelling-place and provoke him for ever to abhor US so infinitely needing his Wisdom Power and Grace to help us in all Concernments Us who without his infallible Counsel and his invincible Strength are sure by every Sin to be frightned into Despair of Mercy or hardned unto a very disregard of Vindictive Justice Who are sure by Prosperity to be slain and to be made forgetful of God by Adversity to be brought to horrible Distrust of God's goodness or as leud Disdain of his Government and Discipline by our very Duties themselves to be puffed up with
Pride as if we were more than Angels or else to be torn with Discontent as if we thought God's Servants were no better than Gally-slaves To conclude thus saith the gracious Man I believe in God the Father and in the Son and I believe in the Holy Ghost also The Father worketh hitherto and the Son works and blessed equally be his Name the Holy Spirit worketh By his ASSISTANCE through Christ's MEDIATION is my access unto GOD. Mark 4. The Covenant of Grace is Spiritually entred Sacramentally confirmed and Practically observed by him He knows no Religion but what is Federal and by Covenant He is one fast-bound to all three Persons of the Godhead undividedly and unto each of them distinctly And this by the BOND OF THE COVENANT as Ezek. 20.37 Even the COVENANT OF GOD'S PEACE as Isai 54.10 He hath learned the first Covenant of Works He hath been Convinced of his breach of it in his first Parents and in his own Person And of his becoming thereby first a Runnagate from God and then an Exile or Banished Creature and one remedilesly miserable without a NEW and BETTER Covenant He hath been wounded by this his said breach of the first Covenant and that unto Death it self The death of all his Comforts in any thing under the Sun and of all his Hopes of welfare in the next World He hath cried in the anguish of his Soul O that I had never been born Nor ever could he change his Mind or desist from that cry or come to any life of Peace and Hope till he had got knowledge of this Covenant of Grace By the balm hereof his Wounds that stank and were corrupt were healed He Revived when he heard that God being by Christ appeased had made and offered a NEW Covenant A new Bond to bind again unto himself those that had run from him To bind himself to bless and save the Penitent and that as strongly and more than ever he bound himself in the first Covenant to bless and save the Innocent He cannot forget the sweet feelings that he had in his heart when he first heard what this Covenant was What it 's Promises and what it's Demands Indeed at first he exclaimed in his haste Away away this is too good to be true Indeed if Light and Darkness and Fire and Stubble were possible to be made Friends this were a way to make them so If GOD and a SINNER were possible to be united and reconciled this New Covenant is one that would unite them But how CAN this be Nevertheless being by and by brought to himself and not daring to give the Lye to Him that CANNOT Lye he ceased to Doubt and began to Wonder and Bless Uttering words to this purpose HEAVEN HEAVEN HEAVEN here 's HEAVEN on Earth Here is a BEATIFICK VISION Why here shine all the astonishing Excellencies and attracting Beauties of God of the whole Trinity I never saw before some of them I never before knew the ten thousandth part of the rest of them Is this the COVENANT OF GRACE 'T is of GRACE indeed and of GLORY too I think O that I had known it sooner That I had asked after it as soon as I could speak That I had given my Parents Ministers and God himself no rest till I had been made to know this Covenant of Grace This HEAVEN HEAVEN HEAVEN upon Earth Briefly he hath admired the exquisite suitableness of both the Privileges and Duties of the Covenant of Grace Their suitableness to the state wherein he lay That was a state of Sin and Misery He did therein nothing but dishonour God and destroy himself Now comes this Covenant of Grace and as to his Sin preacheth Repentance and return to Duty as to his Misery preacheth Remission and return into God's Favour It gives as well as requires Repentance and freely for the sake of Christ not for any Merit in Repentance giveth Remission The Promised Privileges of the Covenant of Grace are such as our Nature craves for and all it can desire To wit PARDON and SALVATION comprehending all Blessings In these God respected our Want The demanded Duties which also are promised in the use of means are such things as our Corrupt Nature doth loath and turn from To wit ENTRANCE and PERSEVERANCE in the Obedience of the Gospel comprehending all Duties In these God respected his own Honour And of equal Wisdom and Grace by the former which are craved by our Nature he allureth us to these latter which are averted from by our Corruption This the gracious Man hath observed much and blessed and magnified God in the observation of it By the former his Spirit Soul and Body have been strongly and sweetly drawn into the latter He hath a true heart that is a heart resolved upon all the Duties of the Covenant and that because he hath also full assurance of Faith that is a heart trusting in God for all the Promised Blessings of the Covenant Thus is he a Spiritual Covenanter with God His Heart and Spirit taking truly the Blessings of the Gospel for his Happiness and as truly taking the Duties of the Gospel for his Work and Business Be it added the Man whom we describe is one that neither Thinks nor makes Light of any Ordinance of his God He knows that God's Positive Laws do bind the Conscience as well as his Moral ones And he remembers that the effects of the first Sin though it were a breach of a Positive Law were tremendous He considers that under the New Testament the Number is but Two the Observation not difficult and if Piously observed exceedingly Beneficial And he infers that the disuse or abuse of Baptism or the Lord's Supper must therefore greatly incense God and injure a Soul He rests not in the foresaid spiritual Covenanting with God though good necessary and of greatest necessity The bare word of the Covenant of Grace as it is in the Scripture he highly prizeth but the signified sealed and engaged word thereof as it is in the Holy Sacraments he most religiously useth and justly prefers He Useth it because he is Commanded and he Preferreth it because in it's use he hath the word of the Covenant with extraordinary Advantages Among Men any Covenant made is first expressed by Words then by Writings then by Hands and Seals mutually added and this last is the highest strongest and utmost Confirmation that Men can give to each other The Covenant between God and Us made is first expressed by his Spirit unto us and by our Spirits unto him in spiritual Language Nextly by Words or Confession with our Mouth we alledging God's part of the Covenant and professing our own restipulation Lastly By Sacraments which are Rites in their outward appearance contemptible but ordained by God for both Signifying Sealing and Engaging Ordained to be Signs and Seals on God's part and to be Bonds and Badges on our part of the Covenant And in this last way is the most noble and
and acceptably unto God you are void of Grace Young Joseph hath ability to repel Temptations and Older David hath ability to comply with Temptations Satan cannot force us unto Evil and the Holy Ghost doth not ever force us unto Good it is voluntarily that we do all the Evil and the Good done by us Grace doth find us sinful Men and free unto Evil and it makes us sincere Christians and free unto Good It doth not as Glory doth take away our possibility of sinning in Mind Will or Work Our state on Earth is one and that in Heaven is another 3 Your Duty of Duties it is therefore to make the best use of your Liberty To side with the Spiritual Principle against the Carnal To take the part of Purity against Impurity And strain hard to live according to the Spirit in every Walk not allowing the Flesh one step To keep the Candle of the Lord your internal Light shining And the fire on the Altar of your hearts your holy Zeal burning To see that your Minds be blinded by no Objections and your Wills blunted by no Oppositions and your Lives blackned by no avoidable Abominations For why God rewards Grace with Grace and your Obeying the new Nature in you strengthens it And the strengthning thereof is the weakning of Sin its opposite It doth make and shew it to be weak But on the other hand let it be awefully considered It is a frightful Sin to receive in vain the offer of Grace in the Gospel and far worse it is to make vain and not improve the very Work of Grace in one's Soul This is no less than going about to destroy that which is Conceived in us of the Holy Ghost For the new Nature in us like a new-born Child quickly languisheth if it be not tenderly cherished And besides the Holy Ghost who is the Parent of it will be more than a little incensed if it be but little made of and not by all possible means nourished wherefore blessed are they who set not themselves to gratifie but to crucifie their Senses Appetites and Passions And content not themselves to Possess unless they do also exercise and Increase their spiritual Gifts Graces and Comforts Going forward in them and going apace so and that sensibly and visibly Knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle I have thus endeavoured that ye may be able after my Decease to have these things always in remembrance For if these be in you and abound they make you that ye shall not be Barren nor Unfruitful in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ And an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into his everlasting Kingdom Amen and Amen Bishop Wilkins his Character of the best Christians is here added for your Profit and for the shame of such as traduce us for New-fangled Opinionists and contrary to all the Learned of the Church of England THey are Persons of a Moderate and healing Temper of Catholick and Comprehensive Charity They do not Baptize their Religion with the Name of a Sect nor Espouse the Interest of a Party but love all Good men that Fear God and work Righteousness They are not guilty of the Corinthian Vanity in crying up a Paul an Apollos or a Cephas but look upon it as the great Design of Christianity to make men good and where it hath not that Effect they know it matters not what Church such a Man is of because a Bad Man can be saved in none They shun the dangerous Extreams and keep the Regular mean and in Divine Worship prefer a reverend Decency before pompous Superstition or popular Confusion neither bowing down to the Altar of Baal nor Admiring the Calves of Bethel They are true Primitive Christians and think it lawful to hold Communion with any true Church of Christ that is sound in the Substantials of Religion notwithstanding some Circumstantial Differences in the External Modes of Administration And they suspect it sinful and Schismatical to separate from any true Christians who Agree in Apostolical Doctrine and maintain the Discipline of the purest Ages They prove all Things and hold fast only that which is Good and are perswaded those Christians are most in the Right who choose out of all Parties whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just c. and not they that think every thing to be so that 's maintained by their own party They place Religion more in the serious practice of Piety than in the Observance of Ceremonious Forms they are neither fond of needless Rituals nor yet molested with groundless Scruples but long for the Philadelphian State of the Church wishing that all the World might with one mouth glorifie the Eternal God They pay a great Deference to Antiquity yet they are not so fond of Error as to fall in love with it meerly for its gray Hairs but make use of their own Reason to judge of the Reasonings of other men Though they apply themselves to spiritual Guides yet they love to enquire the Way to Sion and not follow them in the Dark except they carry a Lanthorn in their hands They refer the Decision of all the Differences amongst good Christians primarily to the Sence and Meaning of the Holy Scriptures And they know every man must Judge for himself therefore where they see men do all they can to find out the Truth to please God and to save their own Souls they give them a Liberty of Interpreting as knowing themselves not to be Infallible They know there are many Controversies amongst Christians of that Intricacy that the Day of Judgment must determin who are most in the right therefore they dare not judge of mens final Estates or of the Sincerity of their Hearts by their speculative Opinions or different Relishes of things because every man must believe what he can and not what he will They admire to see some Christians so egregiously mistake in the Notion of true Catholicism as to confine Salvation to their particular Communion and they think it strange to hear men contend for an Infallible Guide when Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles do with one consent declare that the way to the Blessedness of the Righteous is by observing the Rule and Exercise of Holy Living from a Principle of Divine Life They never charge other mens Doctrines with such odious Consequences as they never intended nor Asperse their Persons with such invidious Names as they never deserved but make charitable Allowances for their different Educations Constitutions and Apprehension of things supposing that other men may differ from them with the same Sincerity that they differ from others and sometimes from themselves They are for a Religious Loyalty and prefer the Wisdom of Publick Authority before their own private Judgments in all such Matters as are not Determined by the Soveraign pleasure of their Maker And if in any thing they differ from the Wisdom of their Superiours they do it with great Modesty and Reservation and are always ready to change their Minds when better Information leads them to it not thinking they undervalue their Judgments by so doing They are afraid of being infected with the Heresie of Bigottism and have great cause to fear that if the merciful God should damn us all for such things for which strait-laced Christians condemn one another none could be saved They think there is no particular human Form of Ecclesiastical Polity so acceptable to the great God as the Exercise of Mutual Charity under our different Forms They neither make their Opinions Articles of Faith nor their Modes Terms of Communion but believe those Principles and practise those Precepts which wise and good men are all agreed in well Knowing if they should happen to be mistaken in those things wherein they differ they could not lose the Way to Heaven whilest they sincerely love God believe in Christ and obey the Motions of the Holy Spirit They are of peaceable and Reconciling Dispositions and neither call for Fire from Heaven nor Kindle Fires upon Earth to destroy all those that follow not them as well knowing that Truth cannot be engraven in the Minds of Men with the Points of Swords nor can their Understandings be illuminated with flaming Faggots They neither make the Way to Heaven Broader nor Narrower than the Head and Pillars of the Universal Church have made it And they walk on soberly righteously and godly in that Path which upon great Consideration they take to be the Right without rudely Justling those whom they fear to be in the Wrong They think the best way to find out to what Mother the Child of Truth belongs is to make use of Solomon's Test viz. To give up the Cause to them that first lay down the Sword of Division When one Party saith Lo here is Christ in this Church and another saith Lo he is there they Believe what Christ himself hath told them That where Two or Three are met together in his Name there is He in the midst of them They do not think their Zeal Luke-warm except it burn up their Discretion but can joyn the Prudence of the Serpent with the Innocency of the Dove and are grieved to observe men contend so Eagerly about the Pinnacles of the Temple as that they threaten to overturn the Foundations of the Church They take more pains to make good their Baptismal Covenant than to dispute about the Manner of its Administration as if they were Baptized with the Waters of Strife and they are more frequent in a Devout Participation of the Lord's Supper than in Metaphysical Contests about the Real Presence They Know there 's nothing required of Man as Necessary to Salvation but what is clearly Revealed and beyond all Dispute They choose rather to take up the Cross of Christ than wrangle about it and more sollicitously observe the Complexion of their own Souls than the Colour of Ministers Garments Nor do they so contend about the Number of the Elect as to Reprobate themselves for want of Charity but endeavour to perform the Whole Duty of Man in so doing they know they are in the Way to the Saints Everlasting Rest FINIS
another To conclude this Mark of a gracious Man he thinks of the Lord's Supper as it was said he thought of Baptism The Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes the Lord's Supper in vain And he accounts that they do in great measure so take it who do not as is said in the Lines foregoing He knows that the strongest man in Christ doth need it and is not above it and that the weakest Babe in Christ is habitually qualified for it and the Ordinance is not above him No but is even chiefly for such as he is As Holy as Adam was in his innocent state he wanted a Sacrament And as imperfectly Wise and Holy as Christ's Disciples were before his Ascension and Mission of the Spirit they had this holy Sacrament that I speak of He is therefore one that valueth the holy Feast above his daily Bread And not without cause It is said of the Egyptian Youth whom his Master left sick in the Field that being brought to David and having eaten and drank his spirit came again to him The gracious Man can tell you that he hath often been sick and faint in his inner Man and being brought unto David's Son and Lord and having Eaten and Drank at his Table his spirit also hath come again unto him If every Lord's-Day he hath not resorted unto this Banquet yet ordinarily he hath tasted of its twelve manner of Fruits every Month if I may allude unto that in Rev. 22.2 And virtue hath come forth from Jesus Christ into his Soul and done mighty Works there even in despight of its Unbelief and deadly Fears foregoing Though he doth not think the Lord's Supper a Converting Ordinance as from a state of Sin into a state of Grace yet he doth experience it to be a Converting Ordinance as from lower degrees of Grace and Peace unto higher ones He pitieth in his heart every Soul of each sinful Tribe both those that prophanely keep away from the holy Table and those that do but come and prophane it And he spiritually hears God saying to those vilifyers of holy Bread and Wine as it is Isai 65.13 14. Behold my Servants shall Eat but ye shall be Hungry behold my Servants shall Drink but ye shall be Thirsty behold my Servants shall Rejoyce but ye shall be Ashamed Behold my Servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart and howl for vexation of spirit I will here Publish the words of a Judicious and Pious Author which have been useful to me and may be so unto some of my Readers Even these of Mr. Daniel Rogers which I find in his Treatise of Sacraments Part 2. p. 241. I mourn to speak it divers Ministers neither Unlearned nor Unpainful in their kind nor Ungodly yet in Point of the Sacrament do little acquaint either themselves or the People with it almost through the Year except in a passage afar off I dare not boast my self but if I might draw any to Emulation I durst say that whereas my poor Labours for TWELVE YEARS were more upon this than any other Point I am not ashamed to say I found the Argument more FRUITFUL at the end than all the while And doubtless many good People there are who mourn for the barrenness of their Ministers in this kind So in his Preface to his Reader he harmoniously eenough saith I could not see wherein I could do greater honour to God than to enhanse the Knowledge of CHRIST SACRAMENTAL And to incite others to do it whose learned Abilities can better perform it It hath been said who is the good Man's KING and FATHER who is his ADVOCATE and FRIEND in the Court of his fatherly King who is his GUIDE and COMFORTER on Earth sent down unto him from that Court And also what are the BONDS and COVENANT TRANSACTIONS that have passed betwixt them and him Wherefore our last Mark is this Mark 5. Assurance of Saving Grace is sweetly possessed or painfully sought by him By Saving Grace I mean ELECTION REDEMPTION VOCATION JUSTIFICATION and GLORIFICATION By Assurance I understand Certainty of Mind such as is Proper tho' it be Imperfect No man living is Perfectly Assured of God's Love or is so certain that he cannot be made more certain But many a man is Properly Assured of it and hath more than a guess or a conjecture that he is a Possessor of it For many a man's Assurance is built upon proper rational assuring grounds Many a man's Assurance hath proper real Victory over his doubts and against his fears Many a man's Assurance hath proper genuine Fruits of Assurance Peace Patience Joy c. Many a man's Assurance hath the name of Assurance given it by God himself who always giveth things their proper Names St. Paul's is called a sure Perswasion Rom. 8.38 St. John's a sure Knowledge 1 Joh. 2.3 The Faith of all is called an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or evident proof of things not seen Heb. 11.1 In a word many I say have and enjoy the comfort of this proper Assurance of God's Grace And the good man that hath it not that either never attained it or having attained it hath lost it he knoweth that it is ATTAINABLE that it is DESIRABLE and that it is NECESSARY And therefore dares not to desist from seeking it or to be remiss in seeking it He knows it is Attainable For the H. Scriptures are Revelations of God's Grace and that Free indeed as to any Merit of ours but most Engaged as to the Promises and Covenant of God They are a Revelation both Full and very Plain and Intelligible yea and given of God for this very end that we thro' comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 Besides this he knoweth the Nature of Man and the Power of Conscience too well to dream that Assurance is unattainable The Scripture is a Lamp to see by and Conscience is an Eye to see with what then should hinder Assurance Conscience is we know an inner Judge and justifies or condemns us at its Bar. It is also a Witness in our selves as to the matter of Absolution or Condemnation It is likewise a Rewarder or a Punisher of us a good man is more than a little satisfied from himself and a Cain and Judas more than a little tormented in themselves Moreover the good man knows that what hath been full often attained even under the Old Testament it is not to be thought unattainable under the New Especially that thing which under the New Testament very many have attained and all are commanded to seek and consequently have a promise that in the due use of means they shall find To conclude he knows that it is possible to attain assuring Evidences and therefore possible to attain Assurance it self Those said Evidences are Demonstrative ARGUMENT Credible SENSE and Infallible TESTIMONY The inseparable and distinguishing Effects of Grace do demonstrate the being of it Preference of Christ and his Spirit