end I am the Lord I change not Jesus Christ yesterday to Day and the same for ever His works indeed of the first Creation are changable to the worse and weaker but so is not he of old hast thou laid the foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of thy Hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure they all of them shall wax old like a Garment but thou art the same And so are all his works of the second Creation The renewing graces of his holy Spirit the older they are the newer and fresher and more flourishing they grow They that are partakers of them can say as Caleb did to Joshua Forty Years old was I when Moses sent me to espie the Land I am this Day fourscore and five Years old as yet I am as strong this Day as I was the Day when Moses sent me as my strength was then even so is my strength now for War both to go out and to come in So it is said of Moses who was an hundred and twenty Years old when he dyed yet his Eye was not dim nor his natural force abated How much more may it be said of the everlasting Lord God that his Eyes are as sharp sighted as ever nor is his Divine force abated The Eyes of the Lord run too and fro throughout the whole Earth to shew himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect towards him Is his hand shortned that it cannot redeem Or have I no power to deliver Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither his Eare heavy that it cannot hear And as his Power is so is his Mercy and Truth The Mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto Childrens Children Thy faithfulness is unto all Generations This House therefore with all its Furniture is alway new and fresh which can be said of no other nor is it new formally only but also effectively Hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is weary His strength never decayeth nor doth his will ever alter towards his who by a never failing Power of the Holy Spirit are carryed as it were upon Eagles Wings to Heaven to the mark of their supernal Calling Yea their Wings grow like unto Eagles that is they grow young and renew in spiritual Vigour 9. It is a dwelling house dwelling in as well as dwelt in an habitation inhabiting in each of its Inhabitants which no other house is God is oft said to dwell in Heaven Unto thee will I lift up mine Eyes O thou that dwellest in the Heavens Look down from Heaven and behold from the Habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory I dwell in the High and Holy Place The Heaven is my Throne We must not understand this placing God in Heaven as if he were totally circumscribed there for this is contrary to his infinite greatness Behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord. Nor must we think he is so in Heaven as if his sight of things below were hindered by Heaven as a Curtain drawn before him as those great Fools thought for this is contrary to his Omnisciency But he is said to be in Heaven because he doth there most immediatly and visibly manifest his Majesty and exhibit the fulness of his Glory and because from thence he doth most manifest his powerful providence wisdome justice and mercy we are commanded when we pray to him to conceive of him as being in Heaven to teach us to raise our Souls as high in praise as possibly we can above the Earth beyond Heaven our thoughts cannot soar As also how to make Prayers pleasing to God both for matter and manner God is as oft said to dwell on Earth to have his Residence among his ancient People in the Land wherein they dwelt Defile not the Land which ye shall inhabit wherein I dwell for I the Lord dwell among the Children of Israel The Lord hath chosen Zion he hath desired it for his Habitation This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it Blessed be the Lord out of Zion which dwelleth at Hierusalem I have surely built thee an House to dwell in A setled place for thee to abide in for ever In that place as in the flitting Tabernacle which Moses made he caused his Name to dwell that is he made manifest and known in those places the sacred Signs of his Presence as it were by his own proper name His Majesty and Glory in singular and wonderful effects of Grace and Power Every regenerate and faithful Man and Woman hath ever been is and will be owned and acknowledged the Temple of the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity Ye are the Temple of the Living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith Ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Know you not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God These things are signifyed by this dwelling of the Spirit in Believers 1. That his Spirit is effectual and mighty to possess and govern them enlightning their minds to know and powerfully guiding them to do the known will of God 2. That his Presence is continual not as of a Guest who lodgeth for a Night at an Inne and is gone next Day nor as a Sojourner but as an owner and Possessor to abide for ever I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abâ—de with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth he dwelleth in you and shall be in you 3. The manner of his Presence not by Infiniteness of Power as he is present to all Creatures to sustain them but by his grace and healthful effects If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he shall quicken your immortal Souls and mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you 10. It is a movable Habitation according to the motion of those that dwell in it accompanying them whithersoever they go covering them where-soever they are Some Creatures carry their Houses about with them So doth every new Creature They are never out of this their own House The Israelites during their abode in the Wilderness dwelt in Tents Forty Years The Arabians and other People do so constantly having no firm Habitations In time of War and in travelling these moveable Houses were and still are in use Places to dwell in so made as they might be
over all other Creatures He dearly bought and purchased this Habitation for all the Elect which they had forfeited by their first offence and hereupon were outed of it He gave himself a Ransome for them all a Price fully answerable to their Souls and to this Inheritance In him they may have been said to have received at the Lords hand double for all their sins And for them it were and not for himself only that He fulfilled all Righteousness and thereby paid the whole debt of obedience to the Law which they did owe to God All spiritual blessings whereby they are made meet to be made partakers of this blessed Mansion Faith Repentance and Holiness though they be Gospel Gifts of God and obtained meerly through his Mercy yet is this mercy obtained from God only through Jesus Christ Blessed be God who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ in him we have Redemption through his Blood Which also purgeth our Consciences from dead Works to serve the living God and thereby we have boldness to enter into the holyest and through his Intercession it is that we have our abiding there Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Or bring a Writ of Ejection to them Who is he that condemneth Or who is he that passeth Sentence that they must avoid their House It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh Intercession for us He dyed for and in their name and stead whereby they are absolved from all their forfeits He is risen again for their Justification to acquit them as it were by manner of solemn Judgment His Resurrection was a certain argument that God was reconciled and that this habitation was regained for them which could not have been if he had remained dead For the continuation of the Payment would alwayes have shewed the Imperfection of it And as he is at the right hand of God in the Heavenly Glory fully manifested so they are at his right hand Upon thy right hand did stand the Queen And there he maketh Intercession for them by continually representing himself his Righteousness Merit and Love before the face of his Father and so preserves them in his favour and love from which nothing shall be ever able to seperate them by him they have and hold possession 14. It is a habitation best accommodated of any other The conveniences belonging to it are numberless and matchless The excellency of the meanest of them cannot be worthily uttered nor sufficiently magnified by the tongue of Men and Angels No such passage into any House as this When the Queen of Sheba had seen the House that King Solomon had built And his ascent by which he went up to the House of the Lord that most stately Bridge and great terrace born up with exceeding strong Walls which he set upon that hollow place and deep praecipice which divided Mount Zion from Mount Moriah by which they went from the royal Palace to the Temple There was no more Spirit in her she was ravished beyond her self How insinitely more ravished would she have been had she seen by the eye of faith as probably she did and so was the ascent and passage into this house which is the Lord. The Apostle tells us that he by his blood hath made a new and living way of entrance into the holiest for all believers who by a lively faith represent unto themselves his humane nature with all that he hath done in it for them and hereby get into the innermost fruition of Gods grace and glory He in his own Person is the way and passage into this super coelestial Pallace I am the way no Man cometh unto the Father but by me Nor is there any house that hath such Air. Kings have had a care of this especially that the edifice when erected might have fresh Air and cooling Gales of Wind continually Jehoiakim whose pride in building is blamed is brought in thus expressing his purpose I will build me a high house Chambers through Aired the Hebrew hath it so and so the Septuagint exposed to blasts on every side No house hath such continual refreshing Gales as this Christ breaths upon his proper houshold for an external sign of the Internal operation of his spirit He still doth so upon his whole houshold of faith shedding the love of God abroad in their hearts by his holy spirit to whom their common Mother makes this Prayer each is heard and granted Awake O North Wind and come O South and blow upon my Garden By these two Winds of contrary qualities is signified the same spirit working either coolness and refreshing of Comfort or heat and fervency of Zeal And Moreover that every Wind shall blow profit to every one that loveth God as every one doth that to him that dwelleth in him Nor hath any House such Gardens and Orchards with Variety of Flowers and Fruits and fresh Springs therein nor such Walks and Arbours belonging and adjoyning to it as this hath The loss of this parcel of Ground which was stored with such excellent Plants and Trees and enriched with more fruitfulness and beauty than any other part of the Earth called Paradise and the Garden of the Lord made for Mans use and delight and out of which he was excluded and to which he might no more come neer because of his sin is abundantly made up to all that dwell in God Who have liberty to eat of the fruit of every Tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food Yea Of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God and to drink of the Water of Life freely and to walk at liberty Yea themselves are the Gardens and Orchards of this House wherein he walks and delights to feed Nor have any Gardens and Orchards and Springs such Fences and Guards about them as these A Garden inclosed is my Sister my Spouse a Spring shut up a Fountain sealed in that Day sing ye unto her a Vineyard of red Wine I the Lord do keep it I will Water it every moment Lest any hurt it I will keep it Night and Day I saith the Lord will be unto her a Wall of Fire round about Nor is there any House that hath such Lands and Revenues such a stock belonging to it The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof Every Beast of the Forrest is mine and the Cattel upon a thousand Hills I know all the Fowles upon the Mountains They are all before me ready at my service The World is mine and the fulness thereof of the upper as well as lower World Every one that dwells in this house may say truly all these are mine The Apostle says so All things are yours Entirely refinedly
also as a joyful witness both clearing our evidences and opening our minds to discern them The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Sons of God Hereby we come to have boldness confidence and a perspicuous manifestation of Divine love shed abroad in our heart and certain knowledge and full assurance of knowledge and hope of Faith Let us draw near with all full assurance of Faith The word imports a carrying on with full Saile like a Ship that hath Wind and Tyde and all the Sailes spread to the Wind. Those three parts of God's Kingdome Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost are consequents and effects of these three Applications The first namely that of adherence hath Wind and Tide against it The second hath Wind carrying it on but without Tide The third hath both Wind and Tide and all the affections like spread Sailes filled with the Gales of the Spirit causing joy unspeakable and full of Glory In the Church of Rome this Doctrine of full assurance is cryed down and an impossibility of attaining it by any ordinary Christians asserted and the main reason they render for the Confirmation of this Doctrine especially as to the subjective certainty of perseverance whereof Paul speaks when he saith I am sure that nothing shall be able to separate us from the Love of God in Jesus Christ Is the mutability of Man's will but the assurance of Christians depends not upon Man's mutable but upon the immutable will of God and upon his infallible truth who hath promised to keep them whom he receives in him by his strongest power if there can be conceived any degree in Omnipotency we are kept by the Guard of God's Power through Faith unto Salvation They askt what ground hath any ordinary Christian for special faith when there is no special promise nor any Divine testimony by audible Voice such as some choice Persons have had as Gen. 15. 1. Mat. 9. 2. Luk. 5. 20. 47. 48. 23. 42. 43. They are answered we will not contend about bare words whether it be better called special faith or assurance gathered from two promises the one in Scripture the other in our hearts so participating of Faith for that is our sence of special Faith but as to the matter 1. There are general promises with a command to apply them 2. Special Faith is gathered by argumentation thus whoever hath God's Spirit confesseth that Jesus is the Son of God that Man dwelleth in God But so have I so do I therefore I dwell in God 3. Sacraments give ground for special Faith wherein is made special application to the receivers 4. The Spirit is given for this end to believers as a seal and earnest and witness to assure them that God is their Habitation and Salvation And that it 's possible for a Christian in ordinary course to attain this grace if he do what in him lyeth We have God's express promise to this purpose Thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and Redeemer and a charge is laid upon every Christian to make his calling sure and not to come without full assurance when they draw nigh to him in Prayer and other duties of his Worship Let us draw neer him in full assurance of Faith And we have the experience of God's People in all ages for it And though they that profess they had it as Job David Paul were rare Persons Yet the Faith of the meanest Christian is of the same Nature with theirs though not in the same degree This is the Doctrine of the reformed Churches who yet deny not the difficulty of attaining the highest degree and that very few there are that attain it and fewer that have it at all times alike nor any in that perfection but that there is some mixture of doubting And this is one sign of the truth and goodness of it when it is attained with difficulty and assaulted with infidelity For there are many whom Satan and their own heart have deluded in this point who are strongly perswaded that God is theirs never doubted of their interest in him make no question but the Lord is their Habitation who entered not in by the Door never received the spirit of bondage to fear have no fear of offending God no care to please him but live in known sin against the light of knowledge and checks of Conscience which evinceth them to be in the gall of bitterness Now these who in their own conceits have taken up their dwelling in God like those buyers and sellers that took up their seats in the Temple without the Warrant against the consent of the Owner of that House must be dealt with by the Ministers of Christ as those Intruders by Christ were driven out with a scourge And as Nehemiah dealt with Tobiah who had got a Chamber in the Court of the House of God who cast both him and his stuff out of it Avoid prophaneness come not here nothing but holy pure and clear or that which groaneth to be so may enter or abide one Moment at his peril To you who can prove your assurance that you are in God to be of God by the qualification of your Persons as having formerly been humbled for your living without God in the World and at present humble your selves to walk with your God and resolve so to do to the end of your life Unto you I am sent with a manifold Word of Exhortation 1. To prize this as the greatest blessing and rejoyce in it more than in all other blessings and accordingly to praise God for it that he hath given you to know that he is your Habitation Lifting up the Light of his Countenance upon you and giving you Eyes to see that Light There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time when their Corn and Wine increased because thy loving kindness is better than life my Lips shall praise thee Thus will I bless thee while I live Because thou hast caused me to feel the effects of thy Grace at full even as the Sun shooteth out his Beames at Mid-Day And because I finde this to be the life of my life without which every Day would be more bitter to me than Death Therefore for this above all Mercies will I bless thee every Day and I will praise thy Name for ever 2. To hold fast what you have and be alway adding to it as worldly Men do by their Earthly substance How oft are Christians exhorted to hold fast every good spiritual thing that they have gotten Hold fast as with Tooth and Nail the faithful Word The pure and sincere Doctrine of the Gospel against those Gain-sayers that would snatch it from you and not only the matter but the forme
use of lawful things 1 Pet. 1. 7 8. 1 Thes 5. 5 6. Luke 21. 34. 2. Filial fear of God Pro. 14. 16. Rom. 14. 16. 16. 6. Psal 4. 4. 130. 4. Gen. 20. 11. Psal 36. 1. Jer. 32. 42. 3. Remembrance of God's Judgments Mat. 24. 37 38 42. Es 47. 8 9. Rev. 3. 3. Luke 21. 34 35 c. 1 Cor. 10. 15. 12. especially of the last Judgment 2. Cor. 5. 10. There are other notable helps Viz. Growing in knowledge a blind Man is unfit to make a Watch-man A spirit of mistrust-fulness a Master that mistrusts a Servant will watch to catch him Living under a powerful Ministry a Trumpet continually sounding is a good meanes to keep a Man from sleeping Desiring Friends to admonish you when ever you nod They that are inclined to sleep mortally are desirous that others should pinch them to keep them waking Sobriety and temperance in eating and drinking A Drunkard will make an ill Watch-man If you will know what are the signs of a truly watchful Christian they are such as these He discovers the secret windings and turnings of his own heart the least stirring there and much more if the Fire of any Lust begin to kindle there If there be any Fray there he presently stifles it And if need be he calls for help If any good news comes he takes present notice of it and makes it known Psal 66. 16. No blessing of God towards himself or the Church that he does not take thankful notice of If there be Lightning or Thunder or any dreadful Apparition of God's judgment he trembles at it loves and delights in the Morning light And for that reason feares not Death the immediate antecedent of it Qu. Are all of God's holy houshold alway thus waking and watching Ans The Holy Spouse of Christ acknowledgeth that there was a time when she slept having eaten and drank largely of her heavenly Husbands blessings She began to remit her Zeal and neglect the works of Faith and Love Wanting the pretence of her Husband and being pressed with the remnants of the Flesh she gave Eare to carnal ease and security occasioned further hereunto by the time of the Night and by the weather which was Rainy that is by ignorance and errour prevailing and by the opposition and persecution of Enemies Her sleep was neither that dead sleep that all Men are in by nature nor that judicial sleep the spirit of slumber a farther degree of that natural sleep to which God gives up some as a Seal of their desperate condition but it was a sleep arising from the reliques of natural corruption unsubdued prevailing over the regenerate part yet was her heart all this while awake I sleep but my heart waketh Though she had a little laid aside her divine thoughts and meditations yet she still kept the eye of Faith open and the eare of her Heart attentive When the Lord had returned Thus the wise Virgins slumbered and slept but they had their Lamps burning by them which the foolish had not Their hearts waked Mat. 25. 5. They were provided in them with instructions in faith and piety and with the gift of the spirit which is the Oyl that alway burneth in all good hearts howsoever not alwayes in actual exercise But O! the dreadful danger that good Christians are in when it is not so through the letting down of their spiritual watch and giving way to sluggishness there being no sin no temptation no judgment but a secure drowsie Christian is open for Which is the reason of so often inforcing watchfulness by the spirit of God in the Scriptures And therefore I beseech you suffer a word of exhortation to the next special duty incumbent upon all whose habitation the Lord is Namely to be always working God will not have one idle or sloathful Person in his House Every one must have a particular honest Calling The Light of Nature taught the Heathens this as appeares by Pharaoh's question to Joseph's Brethren What is your occupation Gen. 47. 3. And the Marriners to Jonas What is thy occupation Forty Years was Moses a Courtier and Forty Yeares more a Shepheard that great Men may not be ashamed of honest Vocations the greatest that ever have been content to take up with mean Trades The contempt of honest Callings in those that are well born argues pride without wit How constantly did Moses stick to his Shepherds Hook and yet a Man of great learning excellent spirit good education I presume all you that dwell in God are in lawful Callings wherein you may be serviceable to the Church or Common-wealth or private Families In these the Apostle forbids you to be sloathful Not sloathful in business To be sloathful is to be loath to work willing and desirous to shift it off Pro. 21. 25. 24. 23. To be negligent in working taking up more time than needs or not to endeavour to do it well Not to be sloathful is to be ready and forward to be employed Esay 6. 8. and to be diligent and expeditious and industrious to do business in the best manner Gen. 31. 6. That every Christian Man and Womans duty is to be thus employed continually appears because God prohibits sloathfulness and commands diligence Heb. 6. 12. Pro. 6. 9. Gen. 3. 19. Mark 13. 34. 1 Thes 4. 11. Curseth sloathfulness and blessed diligence Pro. 10. 47. 23. 21. 24. 30. to the end Jer. 48. 10. Pro. 13. 11. 28. 19. Eccl. 5. 12. Mat. 25. 16 17 21 23. O that every one would look upon idleness and sloth as a great sin as theft 2 Thes 3. 10 11 12. Prodigality Pro. 18. 9. Sodomy a sin that disposeth a Man to all manner of sin and which shall be punished with the vengeance of Eternal Fire Mat. 25. 26 30. And Heathens and Bruits shall rise up in Judgment against idle sloathful Christians You therefore that are sure you dwell in God take heed of damping your assurance and blurring your evidence by giving the least way to idleness or sloathfulness in your Callings Are you Magistrates be continually imploying and applying your power and authority to the uttermost for the ends for which God hath given it to you Rom. 13. 4. 1 Tim. 2. 2. 2 Chr. 19. 6. to the end Consider God's wrath declared against you if you be slothful to execute Judgment even upon your dearest Relations that deserve it In the example of Eli 1 Sam. 3. 13 14. On the other side the pleasure he will take in you and delight to do you good if you be faithful and severe Jer. 22. 15 16. Numb 25. 11 12 13. 2 King 10. 30. If you be Ministers let the weightiness of the work and glorious reward promised to laboriousness therein and the Plagues threatned against loyterers move you 1 Cor. 4. 2. 2 Tim. 2. 15. 4. 1 2. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Es 58. 1. 2 Cor. 2. 16. Dan. 12. 3. Jer. 1. 1. 1 Cor. 9. 16. If you
this the Fathers of old time Of whom the World was not worthy quenched the violence of Fire and turned to Flight the Armies of the Aliens Faith is of that force that it is able to hold Argument even against the wrath of God to quench the fierceness of his Arrowes Though he slay me yet will I trust in him It s termed a Shield every faculty of the Soul is defended by it against all manner of temptations A Shield serves for defence of the whole Body and every part of it Other pieces of spiritual Armor the Girdle of Truth the Brest-plate of Righteousness the shews of Patience the Helmet of Hope are for particular parts and serve against particular sins and temptations but faith puts by and blunts all blows and as if this grace were all in all a Christians whole warfare is called the Fight of Faith This with the other now named are defensive only or mainly like to which none can be found in any other Armory And for offence here is a Sword of which it may be said as David did of Goliah's There is none like that the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God So called because the Holy Ghost hath framed it and put it into Believers hands and is of a Divine strength and temper to pierce and overthrow the spiritual Enemies With this Word which is sharper than any two edged Sword Christ himself defended himself against the Devil and with the invincible force thereof foyl'd him fulfilling in part that Prophesie In that Day the Lord with his sore and great and strong Word shall punish Leviathan the piercing Serpent even Leviathan the crooked Serpent and in that Day he shall slay the Dragon that is in the Sea Moreover Princes and great Mens Houses are stored with goods for Ornament as well as for necessity and conveniency serving to delight and please the outward Senses of Seeing Hearing Smelling and Feeling that of Tasting hath been spoken to Rich Hangings Curtains Carpets Images and pleasant Pictures Pourtrayed upon the Walls Instruments of Musick Oyntments Perfumes Treasures of Gold and Silver and precious Stone Hezekiah shewed the King of Babylon's Embassadors his House of precious things the Silver and the Gold and the Spices and the precious Ornaments and all that was found in his Treasures In Solomon's House were Hangings of Purple a rich and a beautiful Stuff of a red and bloody hue a dye of great esteem And in Ahasuerus's Palace where he feasted his Princes and Servants There were white green and violet Hangings fastned with Cords of fine Linnen and Purple to Silver Rings and Pillars of Marble The Beds were of Gold and of Silver upon a Pavement of red and blew and white and black Marble In the Houses of those unnatural sensuality we finde Women that wore Hangings to make them more delightful No less is implyed in that passage Let them stretch forth the Curtains of thine Habitation What Lamentation is made when these are harmed Suddenly are my Tents spoyled and my Curtains in a moment Or when they are not handsomely set up There is none to set up my Curtains The Tabernacle had great store of costly Hangings and Curtains to make it beautiful and glorious of cunning work woven but wrought to the Life with a Needle in manner of Pictures like Arras work or other Tapistry Solomon carved all the Walls of the Temple round about with Figures of Cherubims and Palm-Trees and open Flowers within and without Nor was hardly any goodly House without its pleasant Pictures Images of Men pourtrayed upon the Walls with Vermilion Nor without Musical Instruments The Viol the Tabret and Pipe are in their Feasts As the Prodigals Elder Brother drew nigh to the House he heard Musick and Dancing But money answereth all things By this Men furnish their Houses with all the foresaid Ornament and their Feasts with variety of all delights Thrice happy is that habitation thought to be where there is no want of this and blessed are those Children thought whose Parents go to the Devil to procure and leave them bags of theirs in abundance What shall we say to these things If God be ours how shall not all these things be ours They whose House the Lord is have all these and infinitely more to please and delight their inward Senses yea their outward also That one sight of Jesus Christ hanging upon the Cross with his hands stretched abroad to embrace them and his Head bowed down to kiss them and his pierced Side streaming forth blood to wash them from the guilt and filth of their sins evidently set forth lively and naturally represented unto them with his Death and Passion and the Virtue and use thereof is a Picture most pleasant to their Eyes So are the Portraictures of his holy Apostles and Martyrs with the description and history of their acts and passions seen and read of them And to please your Sense of Smelling the House is filled with the savour of Christs good Oyntments as that House was with the Odour of that Oyntment of Spiknard wherewith Mary anointed his Feet Those gifts of the holy Ghost wherewith the Father hath anointed him and which he poureth upon them by the preaching of the Gospel whereof take a taste only of two words and hereby judge of the rest Herb. Ch. the Odour How sweetly doth my Master sound my Master As Ambergrease leaves a rich sent Unto the Taster So doth these words a sweet content An Oriental fragrancy My Master With these all Day I do perfume my mind My mind even thrust into them both That I might find What Cordials make this curious broth This broth of smels that feeds fats my mind And farther for the Sense of Hearing if the Musick made by Organs in the Church so sounded in the Eares of that Divine Poet that drew a Song of Thanks-giving to it from his Tongue and Pen. Id. Ch. Mus Sweetest of sweets I thank you when displeasure Did through my Body wound my mind You took me thence in your house of pleasure A dainty Lodging me assign'd Now I in you without a Body move Rising and falling with your Wings We both together sweetly live and love Yet say sometimes God help poor Kings Comfort I le dye for if you post from me Sure I shall do so and much more But if I travail in your Company You know the way to Heavens Door How infinitely sweeter must that Musick be to the Eares of this Houshold which the Organ of the Holy Scripture the Keys whereof are stricken with the hand of the holy spirit makes with such strains as these Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee with the right hand of my Righteousness When thou passest through the Waters I
Jesus Christ apprehending and applying the promises of pardon made in his blood Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved 2. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit By spirit are meant the gifts or workings of the Holy Ghost which are twofold one inferiour once slightly enlightning Mens mindes this is common to the Elect with many reprobates who are said to be made partakers of the Holy Ghost All that before God are rightfully baptized receive the Holy Ghost according to the promise No Man being able to say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost The other is a supream gift peculiar to the Elect only a new quality of Holiness infused into the Soul transforming the whole Man effecting a real change and alteration of the whole Man from evil to good enabling him to make a good confession and to walk in Love which are the two next Characters 3. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God This confession includes and comprehends in it four things 1. A distinct and cordial knowledge of this and all other fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith which are inseparable in their own Nature For if Jesus Christ be the Son of God all his Doctrine must be a Divine and everlasting truth Especially of that which the Gospel reveals concerning Christ namely that he is an alsufficient Saviour and offered indefinitely to every reasonable Creature that will receive him in a Matrimonial Covenant as a Wife receives her Husband to be governed by him and to cleave unto him in every condition 2. A lively assent of the mind to all this is an undoubted truth with a free and full consent of the will to this blessed offer for the incomparable goodness of it rolling and relying upon his Person and merits for the obtaining of remission of sins and everlasting life after Death According to that of the Apostle This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners 3. A Verbal acknowledgment of these and all other known and believed Gospel Verities with an open profession of them before the face of the World That this is necessary to be found in every one that would approve himself to have Interest in God and possession of him as his Habitation appeares belike in God's grace by Christ is by faith in the heart as in a lively Spring and in confession as a continual respiration both which are promised in the Gospel For what saith Moses The Word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the Word of Faith which we Preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart Man believeth unto Righteousness and with the Mouth confession is made unto Salvation Nor can the one be without the other For when God hath once said unto any Mans heart I have called thee by thy Name thou art mine That Mans heart cannot but answer and say Lord I am thine O Lord truly I am thy Servant I am thy Servant And what he hath heard in the Ear he cannot but declare in the hearing of others One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the Name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand and surname himself by the Name of Israel All manner of Persons that shall joyn themselves to me with my Church shall make open profession of my faith and service and therefore he that is ashamed of Christ and his Words in an adulterous and sinful Generation that would hate and reproach and persecute him for a strict profession thereof or is affrighted hereby from making such a profession God will never own nor Christ acknowledge such a one Their hidden faith shall not hide them from the wrath of God who will take Eternal Vengeance on them for their Cowardize They who through carnal fear shall not dare to make profession of my truth saith Christ shall have their part fixed in the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone These lead the Van in the rout of Reprobates marching thitherward Among the Chief Rulers many believed on Christ but did not make publick profession of believing in him for fear of excommunication this faith of theirs was properly no faith For a true and lively faith confesseth that with the Mouth which is believed in the Heart This duty of confessing God was figured under the Law by the shaking of things offered waving them to and fro before the Lord which signified the shaking of our Lips as in uttering and speaking forth his praise By him let us offer the Sacrifice to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his Name So the telling forth frankly and boldly what we hold in matter of Religion 4. A Vital confession joyned to a Verbal There are some whose lives give their Mouths the lye They profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable disobedient and unto every good work Reprobate Unto the wicked God saith what hast thou to do to declare my statutes seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee God is love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him This is a sure note and character of our dwelling in God when we finde that we love God for himself and our Neighbour for his sake In obedience to his Command Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And because of his Image which is more or less visible in every Man by this we may try the truth of the first note for the love of God is the root of all true obedience to his Commandments Nothing we do is good in his sight unless we do it out of love to him When our Saviour gives the sum of the precepts of the first Table he does it in these words Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Giving us thereby to understand what makes all the service there required to be acceptable unto God The same makes the duties of the second Table so Let all your things be done in love Follow the truth in love Above all these things put on Love This makes them all lovely Love is the fulfilling of the Law Qu. How may we know we have this love to God and Men Answ Where there is true love to God the heart is softned The sight and sence of sin will fill it with sorrow for offending God thereby Zech. 12. 10. Psal 51. 3. Luk. 7. 38 47. and there will be a Daily increase of hatred of sin a greater desire after and delight in the
forgotten Going and weeping for repentance for their former sins for grief to behold their miserable Estate Where have we any that have any such mind to joyn themselves unto the Lord To become one spirit with him We have too many that joyn themselves to Harlots making one Body with them Like the Israelites that committed Whoredom with the Daughters of Moab and then joyned themselves with Baal Peor and that joyne together with Thieves and Drunkards and Enemies to God and goodness Saying Come with us let us lay wait for blood let us lurk privily for the Innocent without cause though they have done us no wrong Come let us devise devices against Jeremiah let us smite him with the Tongue lay accusations and calumnies against him 3. There are fewer that cleave unto the Lord. How many visible Members of the Church joyned a Covenant with God by Baptisme and in fellowship with his People have fearfully apostatized yea some that have been eminent for knowledge profession and practice of piety are fallen from their holy principles and practices Some to scandalous and foul sins some to Popery and other Heresies some to Prophaneness and some to Worldliness like Demas who forsook Paul Having loved this present World The eases commodities and carnal securities thereof How many are there in whom we may see as in him that fulfilled which our Saviour speaketh Many that were the first the forwardest in their love to the Word in the work of God in publick domestical and secret duties are now become the last the backwardest of all others After they had escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ They are again intangled therein and overcome by the Devil Again in some manner and for some time they fought whereby he hath for ever possessed himself of them To whom it is happened according to the true Proverb The Dog is turned to his own Vomit again and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the Mire 4. How few have any care to keep the Commandments of God How many give that answer to his Prophets pressing obedience which those Jews did to Jeremy As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the Name of the Lord We will not hearken unto thee But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth out of our own Mouth willingly walking after the Commandments of Men. 5. Where almost shall we finde such a one as Joshua a Man in whom is the Spirit to whom God hath given his good Spirit upon whom the Spirit of the Lord resteth as it did upon Christ the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord the spirit of grace and of supplication the spirit of sanctification of meekness of faith of love and of a sound mind Such a Spirit as Caleb had fulfilling to follow God No such spirit appears in many in our Days In most there is the evil spirit the spirit that worketh in the Children of disobedience A perverse spirit The Lord hath mingled a spirit of perversness in the Land He hath taken away the understanding and troubled them as if they had drunk some stupifying Drink A Spirit of deep sleep The Lord hath punished their voluntary blindness with a greater astonishment depriving them quite of the light of his spirit against whom they rebelled giving themselves over to the spirit of darkness The spirit of the World such a spirit as hath no proportion nor correspondency but only with worldly things which it only values and affects If Men had thâ— holy spirit of God given them they would be led by him follow his directions and good motions for the guide and Governor of their life they would live in the spirit and walk in the spirit and strive in the newness of the spirit and give and offer unto God a spiritual worship according to his nature Bring forth the fruit of the spirit which is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness faith meekness temperance but the clean contrary But none of all this they do and therefore God hath not given them his spirit and consequently they do not dwell in God 6. Very few confess truly that Jesus Christ is the Son of God They know nothing of him and his Gospel as they ought to know distinctly humbly â—avourly practically They give not their unfeigned assent and consent unto his Holy Liturgy that all in it is truth and goodness nor do they own and acknowledge him with their Lips and Lives 7. Most Men are so far from dwelling in Love that the hatred both of God and Men dwells in them They are haters of God could wish there were no God Though with their Tongue some shew much love yet with their hearts they hate him and his Laws and wayes And so they do his People as Cain did Abel and Ahab Micaiah wishing evil to them out of a rooted and setled malice and that for their Holiness though they pretend it is for their hypocrisie and if any wrong them they bear implacable spirits towards them by this it appears they dwell not in God Now my business with all these is to advise them to give all diligence to give themselves no rest till they have gained the Lord even the most High to be their habitation and to instruct them in the means conducing to this end Motives many might be given but sufficient hath been spoken in the beginning of this Discourse concerning the desirableness and excellency of Rest in general and of the Souls rest which is to be found only in this House To which I shall add that in no other a Man that takes his rest can be secure and safe but in this he may I will both lay me down and sleep for thou Lord makest me dwell in safety If thou preparest thy heart makest thy self fit to lodge under the shaddow of the Almighty Thou shalt take thy rest in safety Also thou shalt lye down and none shall make thee afraid Whoso harkneth to me useth means to have his abiding in me shall dwell safely and be quiet from the fear of evil God sayes to every one whom he sends his Ministers unto to come and take their Rest in him As David to Abiathan Abide thou with me fear not for thou shalt be in safe-guard Those Egyptians that feared the Word of the Lord threatning a direful hayle which should come on the morrow and should destroy all Men and Beasts which were out of Houses Made their Servants and their Cattel flee into Houses He that regarded not the word of the Lord left his Servants and his Cattel in the Field to their destruction It will be the destruction of you and yours to Eternity if you
his Hypocrisie Qu. What was wanting in these Chapmen that bid thus fairly for this House and went without it Answ Three things which you must bring to make up the Price of this Purchase or fare as they did Namely 1. Poverty of Spirit they came with Money You must come without or go without Come buy without Money and without Price He that hath no Money Come apprehend your selves in the prodigals condition in extream want of grace and in debt to divine Justice ten thousand Talents and utterly unable to pay one Unite To such a Chapman will the Lord look and hearken For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the High and Holy Place with him also that is of an humble spirit And to be sure he dwelleth in God in whom God dwelleth Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven 2. Self-denyal If any Man will come after me let him deny himself Christ was going unto his Fathers Bosome he was there always they that go after him must needs go in thither this only self-denyers do who forsake the motions of their own corrupt reason and will loath whatsoever is lovely to Nature that will hinder them in the course of godliness mortifie the old Man crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts yea dispose themselves to hate even their neerest kindred in case the love of them be incompatible with the love that is due â—o Jesus Christ Nor is their life â—ear to them nor dare they do that which they do but suspect is â—ispleasing to God Many have written divinely upon this subject Mr. Baxter incomparably 4. An intire resignation of the whole heart to Jesus Christ Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me and you shall finde rest for your Souls Yield and submit our selves we must both actively and passively 5. Get into the way that leads unto this House I am the way saith Christ No Man cometh unto the Father but by me The way to get into Christ is by a lively faith denying our own righteousness and rolling our Persons Souls and Bodies upon the Person of Christ God and Man and upon his merits and righteousness and upon the promises made in him for remission of sins and salvation receiving him not only as a Savior but also as a Lord as willing to be ruled by him as well as to be saved If you finde it difficult to do this do as that poor Man did Who cryed out and said with tears I believe Lord help my unbelief 6. You that are yet in a state of nature blind and lame and worse cloathed than with Sack cloath and so unmeet to be admitted into this House Anoint your Eyes with Eye-Salve that you may see You know of whom you may have it and have faith to be heal'd of your lameness as that Cripple from his Mothers Womb had in whom the Spirit of God had infused some seeds of Faith which Paul conceived by Revelation And cast away those filthy Garments that are upon you as menstruous Clothes saying get you hence and put on other Apparel The new Man which after God is Created in Righteousness and Holiness of Truth 7. Nor do you stick at any engagements or obligations or oaths required of you but freely enter into any that shall be put upon you by him who cannot impose any thing but what is holy just and good And resolve to keep them I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments Thus do and you shall not fail to finde the Lord to be what a House and all desirable Furniture and Conveniencies can be unto you THE THIRD SERMON THere is yet one thing more required of you that would make God your habitation viz. That you make your selves his habitation He will not suffer any to dwell in him who freely do not suffer him to dwell in them in all the Scriptures we quoted out of the Apostle John's first Epistle Characterizing them that dwell in God We finde the dwelling to be mutual If therefore you desire to dwell in God serve his desire which is that he may enter and dwell in you in your whole Man in all the faculties of your souls mind will affections memory and conscience and in all the senses and members of your Bodies Eyes Ears Mouths Hands Feet But especially he craves the heart My Son give me thy Heart and let thine Eyes observe my Ways The heart first and then the Eyes Lift up your Heads O ye Gates and be ye lift up O ye everlasting Doors that the King of Glory may come in Mens hearts are compared to Trap-doors the lifting them up is the opening of them They must be lift off from things of the World from the things below and be lift up to things above Set your affections on things above not on things on the Earth See how earnest the Lord Jesus is with you to give him entrance Behold I stand at the Door and knock if any Man hear my Voice and open the Door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me Read Cant. 5. 2 7. and observe the several degrees by which this Door comes to be opened unto him Now because it is not every heart that is fit to entertain God The heart of the Wicked is little worth The Query will be what manner of heart it is that God is willing and desirous to dwell in Our Saviour resolves the Query It is an honest and good heart For only such a heart is good soyle fit for the good Seed of the Word to fall into and God comes into the heart with his Word Qu. What is an honest heart and what makes it so Answ That is an honest heart That provides for things comely before God and Men. It was honestly said of those Israelites to Moses Go thou neer and hear all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee and we will hear it and do it They have well said saith God all that they have spoken but O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me The fear of God is the principal grace that makes the heart honest And then a Man fears God when distrustful of his own insufficiency to do any thing that God requires he is studious and willing to give up himself to Christ to be taught of him and enabled by him to do all the will of God A good heart is described and set forth in Scripture by sundry Names and Epithites namely new broken single whole pure perfect And although it be true that he that hath one of these in truth hath all they are all one Yet because each of them requires a several notion to open it and because some can
hypocrites have been conversant in them even afflicting their souls and fasting frequently and praying on such Days very servently And this is that which God's Ministers are bound to press upon Men that are in a natural condition to do matter of duty to set themselves as objects of the spirit of God attending upon Divine Ordinances As a neglected Courtier sets himself in the Kings sight standing and waiting where he usually passeth and there humbly faces him It is observed that the Spirits out-goings are only upon such as face him He goes right on and turns not as he goes They must do as Esther did who esteemed her self as lovely as she could in the Kings sight set her self in the best dress she had as an object of the Kings call and see what good success she had by so doing Qu. How far doth nature qualifie her self for grace when she reacheth forth her abilities as far as she can Answ 1. Morally God took occasion from Ahab's humiliation to spare his life when upon hearing of Elijah's words he rent his cloaths put Sack-cloath upon his flesh and fasted and lay in Sack-cloth and went softly seest thou saith God unto the Prophet how Ahab humbleth himself before me because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his Days So he took occasion from what those noble Bereans did in bringing their Bodies to publick Assembly takeing the heads of Paul's Sermons and examining the Notes they had taken by the Scriptures to work effectual faith in them 2. Passively a Man makes himself an object of the grace Life a handle for the Spirit to lay hold upon when he harps upon the string of his misery Cries out of his sin implores mercy and waits for grace in the use of means And it is not only possible that he may be translated out of the state of nature into the state of grace but probable he shall be so The Gospel being the market of grace he that goes to buy there without Money it 's probably he may be furnished to his mind As they that lay at the Pool of Bethesda waiting for the moving of the Water were in fair probability to be healed of their Diseases The Scribe that answered discreetly was not far from the Kingdom of God If there be no certainty of obtaining saving grace yet this should not discourage any natural Man from doing their utmost for the obtaining of it no more than the Husband-man is discouraged from Plowing Sowing because he is not certain he shall have his seed again No more is the Merchant sure he shall have his Ship come home laden with goods yet he ventures and so do all that trade for earthly commodities The Argument or motive to pains-taking from a peradventure or may be hath a force in it 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. Dan. 4. 27. Joel 2. 14. Zeph. 2. 3. They that neglect to use the means are sure to perish and such are most Men in these last Days who embezzel Nature's abilities make her poorer than she is strip her naked even of common Principles Sensual livers that drown all in Belial manners and having stifled Conscience give themselves over to work all uncleanness with greediness live as if they had no God to serve no soul to save or as if their souls served only as the souls of Swine to keep their Bodies from putrifying They that are less licentious and lead a civil life are generally prodigiously sloathful work not at all or not with half their might as if grace and glory were not worth the while to labour for Now them that are such we command and exhort to be impatient of a natural condition to look upon grace as lovely and the Mother of delights Herb. Ch. the Foil If we could see below The Spheer of Virtue and each shining grace As plainly as that above doth show This were the better Skie the brighter place God hath made Stars the foyle To set off Virtues Griefs to set off sinning Yet in this wretched World we toyle As if Grief were not foul nor Virtue winning Thus saith the Lord God O ye House of Israel let it suffice you of all your abominations It is now even time to turn over a new leaf Let possibility and probability put you upon straining your selves with all your strength for the improving of Nature in her abilities and prove me now herewith saith the Lord. If so the common grace I have given you to actuate nature I will not also add sanctifying saving Grace Yea let me assure you that if you finde in your selves a valuing of an estate of Grace in your selves above all earthly things and a vehement and constant desire to have admission into God's Grace and savour and that not only for the benefit and comfort it brings with it but for the beauty and excellency it brings with it also at least you would and wish heartily that it were the ground of your desire and if withall your purpose and resolution be to persevere in the use of all the means appointed to bring you to this estate God hath begun a work of Grace in your Souls which he will perfect and you are in the number of those thrice happy People whose habitation the Lord Jehovah is With whom we are next to deal And first with those whose habitation God is sure enough but they have no comfortable assurance that he is so Cannot say as David here in my Text He is my refuge I say they are not comfortably assured for there are none whose habitation the Lord is are utterly without all assurance Certainly the Lord is theirs that he dwells in them and they in him but many of them know not that they have this knowledge and some of them deny it yea conceive and conclude that they are out of God and as far from him as Hell from Heaven That it 's possible for Men to know a thing and not to know they know it yea to deny that they know it appears by these words of Thomas in the name of all his fellow Disciples to our Saviour who had assured him that Whither he went they knew and knew the way Lord we know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way They knew both but they knew not that they knew either And that Men in the state of Grace and abiding in God may be so far from any sensible and comfortable assurance of their interest in God of his love and favour towards them that they may seem to be assured of the contrary apprehend him as their mortal Enemy appeares by those words of Job He teareth me in his wrath who hateth me Mine Enemy sharpeneth his Eyes upon me Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine Enemy Now the Grounds and Reasons why many precious Souls have such doubts and feares and are apt to pass such a sad conclusion
longest to be freed from it It 's Grace certainly that makes thee able to discern so hidden and close a Corruption and to hate it And as sense and feeling is a certain sign of a living Man as was now said So thy sense of hypocrisie with a hatred of it is a sure note and token of thy sincerity So that thou art not in the Flesh but in the Spirit Nor matters it so much what evil motions thou findest in thy self as how thou standest affected to them There are and will be filthy scums rising up in thy heart continually while thou livest here But while thou castest it off as it riseth by confession and self-condemnation it shall never hurt thee God will not condemn but absolve and acquit thee of it Thou mayest and oughtest to take comfort in the allowance of the Law of God in thy judgment and in thy will consenting to do it having an unfeigned desire purpose and endeavour to please God and to do his will this being the work of God's sanctifying Spirit and a special fruit of Christ's purchase as real comfort therefore herein as if thou wast perfect in obedience For if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a Man hath nor shall he be rejected for that he hath not In this God's choicest Servants have comforted themselves against all their imperfections and falls and failings Obj. But I question the truth of my desires Answ That thou need'st not do as long as thou esteemest God's grace and favour above all things Seeking by prayer and other means every Day to grow less sinful and more holy and mournest for thy Daily miscarriages lamenting after the Lord. Obj. But my Conscience condemns me for an Hypocrite Ans O spiteful bitter thought bitterly spiteful thought Thou hast reason to discredit thy Conscience if it be opposite to the Word of God and not to regard it against the Word of God If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things He knowes the way thou takest that it is right And his word which is the Judge of Conscience hath given Sentence on the right side And therefore thou art bound in this case to check and condemn thy Conscience for troubling thee causlesly So did David and Job Let me give thee one caution take heed of making inherent Grace the only and chief ground of thy comfort Though it is indeed the only evidence of thy title to comfort For in so doing thou shalt commit two great evils one against thy self in leaning upon a bruised Reed for thine own Spirit may fail thee and be overwhelmed and thy heart may reproach thee another against the Lord making an Idol of that gift of his which cannot be so trusted in without sin Rely more upon God's Grace without thee than that which is within thee Yet cherish also inherent Holiness as thy only evidence of Life Eternal and the beginning of it Finally give not credit to thy misgiving heart that would perswade thee thou hast no assurance that God is thy Habitation For thou hast that degree of assurance which is necessary to the beeing of Grace the lowest degree of certainty which is in every true believer consisting in an application of adherence Whereby the Soul of a penitent sinner casts it self upon Jesus Christ with a resolved humble recumbency cleaving to him as the Ivy doth to the Oak Eagle to the Carkass goes out of it self renouncing its own Merits and relying upon the Person and Merits of Christ his active and passive obedience for forgiveness of sins and for Life and Salvation This is the act of Faith and every one that thus receiveth him with an Obediential affiance knows that and that through him dwelling in his heart he hath his dwelling in God You therefore as yet that have not any comfortable assurance cease hence-forth to doubt and fear and assay to joyn your selves with them that have with whom we are next to deal as Saul assayed to joyn himself to the Disciples at Jerusalem Who will not at all as they were awhile of him be afraid of you but receive you joyfully into their blessed Society And when thou hast told despair Divine Herbert's strange story Say to it as he doth Hark Despair away THE FOURTH SERMON HAving dealt with those of this Divine Houshold that have as yet no comfortable assurance that the Lord is their Habitation we proceed to deal with them that have higher degrees of assurance which carry sensible comfort with them one is the Application of Experience when a Christian discerns in himself Divine impressions effects of regenerating Grace two or three whereof we will mention The prime and most general is a real change of the whole Man from evil to good This is a sure evidence of our being in Christ If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are past away all things are become new Whoever is changed in all his senses motions and affections speeches and actions is certainly ingrafted into the Body of Christ by his spirit The substance of the Soul and Body is the same the qualities and operations altered Another is walking in the light as God is the light Living and conversing following that light of God which is conferred upon us by Grace evidenceth us to be partakers of the Divine Nature Purifying our selves as he is pure Hereby we know we have fellowship one with another God with us and we with him that he dwells in us and we in him Love to the Brethren Christ's whole spiritual kindred who are knit to him to the bond of Faith and among themselves by that of love another infallible note We know that we have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren When a Christian's faith in lively exercise reflects upon its own acts receptive of Christ and operative by him having withall a sanctified Conscience witnessing sincerity in the actings he gathers by discourse and reasoning his own spiritual estate as Paul did Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the World and now abundantly to you-ward Such an application of experience had Thomas upon his Faith not quite exquisit before but very weak was raised and renewed by beholding touching and feeling The other application is that of evidence when the testimony of God's spirit comes and concurs with ours when we finde the Holy Ghost in us not only as a seal imprinting the graces of Christ upon our Souls nor only as an earnest giving us the first Fruits and as it were handle of Heaven Those holy and Heavenly Gift conferred in this life being a pledg of the perfection which shall be in the next but
having this Seal the Lord knoweth them that are his that the purpose according to Election might stand Even so at this present also there is a remnant according to the election of grace All that the Father giveth me shall come to me I know my Sheep and I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish Ye are come to the Church of the first born which are inrolled in Heaven rejoyce that your Names are written in Heaven Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire Insomuch if it were possible they should deceive the very Elect. So that howsoever Salvation in the execution of it depends upon the conditional use of the means yet the will of God is not conditional incompleat or mutable because God hath absolutely purposed to give his Elect both will and power to perform those very conditions required namely Repentance Faith and Perseverance For the Decree of God predestinating must not be considered after this form I will choose Peter to Eternal Life if it shall so happen that he doth believe but rather thus I do choose Peter to Eternal Life which that he may infallibly obtain I will give him faith As many as were ordained to eternal life believed according to the faith of God's Elect. Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father who are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation All gifts of grace leading into the habitation of holiness and whom to salvation are the fruits and effects of Eternal Election Neither is it true that we are Elected for faith and holiness for we are Elected unto both according as he hath chosen us in him that we should be holy Election therefore is before the spiritual blessings both in order and time Ye have not chosen me but I haven chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God As for this only General Election of all and every Man to salvation upon condition of faith it is indeed alone no Election because it predestinates no Man actually severs no one from another writes no Name in the Book of Life ordains no individual to have his habitation in God but only prescribes the manner of coming to salvation promiscuously to all neither by it is it decreed who shall be saved but what manner of Men. Moreover who holds this Universal Election alone must also grant an Universal reprobation For if God will only have all to be saved indefinitely if they will believe he willeth likewise that all shall be damned that do not believe and so God neither chooseth or refuseth any antecedently Finally this opinion makes Man's will to over-rule God's counsel Nor can you believe God's equal love to all Men when you hear him professing that he did not equally love two who were equal by Nature nor that he desires the salvation of all alike because all are not converted and saved it being as easie for him to effect as desire and by his effectual Grace to make Men of unwilling willing without destroying their voluntary liberty 3. Touching the efficacy of God the Holy Ghost working Conversion that it is not to be restrained to moral perswasion only which Man 's will may embrace or reject and finally resist is abundantly evinced by that one Text where the Apostle heaps up so many emphatical and significant words on purpose to declare the power of the spirit of God put forth in the conversion of a sinner That they may know what is the hyberbolical greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead To which many more may be added and that it depends not upon Man's free-will which can neither convert it self nor overcome divine grace to put forth for his conversion The Scripture every where plainly and expresly teacheth I mean that grace which is given with an absolute purpose to convert See 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. Col. 2. 12. 2 Thes 1. 11. Luk. 11. 22. 2 Pet. 1. 3. Next to the principal efficient causes of their happiness the instrumental are to be owned and thanked Those from whom you had your natural beeing without which you had not been capable of this or any other good Honour is due to natural Parents how poor how bad soever nor must they be despised for any default of body or mind and it is a point of piety to relieve them if they be in want Nor can you ever sufficiently requite them though it must be your study so to do Let them learn first to shew piety at home and requite their Parents for this is acceptable before God Your spiritual Parents are much more to be honoured and much less to be contemned for as much as they have been instruments of your better beeing your being in Christ in God without which you had better to have been Dogs or Toads Yea good had it been for you if you had never been born In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel Think nothing too dear for these I bear you record that if it had been possible ye would have pluckt out your own Eyes and have given them unto me Time was when you held your selves happy in me and blessed the time that ever you saw and heard me Howbeit I do not say unto thee how thou owest me even thine own self Bless also all those who have been fellow-helpers with these by informing convincing reproving instructing advising comforting you against despair All these call for thankfull acknowledgment Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this Day to meet me and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou which hast kept me from avenging my self Let the Righteous smite me reprove and chide me It shall be a kindness I will thank him for it and God for him for it and God for him The next sort of Persons to whom you owe duty to the performance whereof I shall earnestly exhort you are they who as yet are without God in the World to whom it may be said They have neither part nor lot in this matter but are in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity And that not only without the Pale of the Church Twenty-Six parts of the World divided into Thirty-One having not so much as the Name of Christians and of those Five that are Christians in Name What a World of Papists are there besides Hereticks that cut off themselves from the true Church But even in the reformed Churches and even in this Land of light and Valley of Vision there are six sorts and a great number of them who dwell not