not to set up our selves by them but to perfect this unity to build up one another in Faith in knowledge and that so we may in all things grow up into Christ the head vers. 7. to 16. Secondly The World towards them we must walke wisely Chap. 5. 15. First taking heed of partaking with them in any evill nay of countenancing the least evill in them Chap. 4. 17. Chap. 5. 7. 11. Secondly redeeming the time from them as much as may be for converse with God Thirdly doing as much good as we can to them while we are with them both which are included in that phrase of redeeming the time vers. 16. Thirdly those in neare relations to us whether brought home to Christ or in their naturall condition we are to observe the strict Lawes of that relation we stand debtours to them in which wee are not to faile in towards them bee they superiour or inferiour how ever they act towards us Chap. 5. vers. 22. to the end of the Chapter and Chap. 6. to vers. 10. Our engagement to Christ does not set us free from our relations and duties in any kinde to men but onely layes a bond on him to furnish us with free spirits and power to fill up what wee owe in every relation Christ gives us not freedome from but freedome unto every thing that is of God 4. To stand upon our guard not to be driven from the sweetnesse of the Gospel nor from acknowledging and admiring God in every step of his love mercy wisdome power and grace nor from this walking worthy of the Gospel by any enemy any temptation or any thing that befals us in any kind Chap. 6. 10. 11. but to stand armed against our enemies who are spiritually mighty and lay the sorest temptatious and baits in spirituall things vers. 12. We are to stand armed thus 1. With an understanding having its light clear about it and with a will having an holy disposition ready to act in any kind God shall please to call it out unto vers. 14. To have an understanding ready to put forth it selfe knowing how to carry it selfe how to obey how to suffer how to embrace how to resist and a will graciously disposed to either whensoever God shall call it forth Our loynes commonly are ungirt our light is to seek our grace hangs loose about us that we are unfit to act for God at all much more unfit to doe it in the face of that opposition which we are still likely to meet with in every spirituall undertaking And for want of this piece of armour we lie open to our spirituall enemies 2. With an holy resolution to act for Christ according to that light hee shall give in to the conscience to meddle with no evill to omit no duty of any kinde this is that brest-plate that keeps the heart or conscience pure and safe vers. 14. when the Devill doâ—s not finde us resolved against sinne or resolved for duties bee it how it will with us hee commonly takes us in his snare 3. With affections taken with the sweet truths of the Gospel as pardon of sinne c. and ready to hold out these truths for the Gospel to make out its way into mens hearts vers. 15. Troubles and â—fflictions wee meet with within and without will quickly damp our affections if they bee not well fenced with these 4. With Faith over all these defending even these as well as our selves in other respects by Faith by Faith interposing the power of Christ between us and every enemy that may come to assault us in these or in any other respects that may come to ungird us and make us unfit to act to damp our holy resolution for God to deaden our affections towards the sweet truths of the Gospel which prepare the way for Christ or to wound us with any temptation whatsoever Faith is a true shield it defends both the person and the rest of his armour as we know a shield does the Devill cannot prevaile in any point against a believing soule vers. 16. Alas we can doe nothing our selves doe no good avoid no evill all our strength lies in trusting God with our selves in every condition and with every spirituall advantage and help hee hath given us to manage it as he pleaseth for us 5. With hope of salvation by grace both for eternity and from any present distresse in GODS time Because many seeming miseries may befall the believing soule contradictions to his Prayers Desires Faith yea to all the motions of GODS Spirit in him hee must have an helmet of hope vers. 17. as well as a shield of Faith And this will keep up his spirit that hee shall not feare looking up to GOD what ever befals him 6. With the sword of the Spirit the Word of GOD the living Word the Word which is Spirit and Life This will kill all false reasonings and every thing that exalts it selfe against CHRIST this will make enemies flye from the soule for they hate the Word of life they know it is their death and it will also make the soule it selfe subject unto CHRIST vers. 17. And all this and every thing else must bee done by Prayer vers. 18. wee can doe nothing not gaine this armour not put it on not use it all must be done by Prayer by intreating another to doe it for us wee cannot believe wee must prâ—y for Faith neither can we pray we must believe for prayer we cannot doe either both must flow from the spirit and be done in the spirit praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit Oh how are we stripped when every motion sends us out of our selves to another and yet withall tells us wee are altogether unable to goe out of our selves or step the least step towards that other And wee must watch unto prayer catch opportunities to breathe out our hearts to GOD to doe that in us which he bids us doe not being discouraged with any difficulties but persevering in our requests for our selves and all the people of God vers. 18. Behold ô Christian thy spirituall employment thine easie and painfull employment easie to thy spirit painefull to thy flesh and as yet somewhat painfull to thy spirit also by reason of the cumberance of thy flesh the weaknesse of thy spirit the power and fury of thine adversaries FINIS
heart by the power of the truths of Christ conveyed thither and working there There are three great effects of this water It begets it washeth it nourisheth It begets a dead man to life it begets a man unto God for it is a living and active water or rather it is the seed whereof a man is begotten and born or at least the vessel that living vessel which containes it It is that also wherewith he is washed after hee is born though there be a washing with blood too And it nourisheth him after hee is both borne and washed hee lives upon the very same water that he was borne of and with It is the first of these effects that is here spoken of that stroke that water hath in the generation and birth of the new creature He is born of it It is by letting in these waters upon the soule and into the soule that God changeth it and maketh it a new Our change in our spirits and our conversion to God proceedeth from and is to be attributed to that power of truth that God lets in upon us and to that the Apostle ascribeth it as in many other places Rom. 6. 17. Iam. 1. 1â— As our first change from God was by drinking of the Devils waters which were waters of darknesse and death waters of errour and deceit so this great change to God againe is wrought by drinking of Gods waters his spirituall waters of life which are his truths which hee holds out unto us wherein there is no darknesse nor deceit at all but they are cleare living and substantiall 3. What is it to be born of the Spirit It is to have this change from these waters wrought in us by the spirit A man can never change his own heart by any of the truths of God but it must be the spirit that must doe it This water is too spirituall a seed for any man to sow in his own heart No man no creature can sow anothers seed this is the spirits seed and hee must sow it if it be sown Christ himselfe openeth and illustrateth this further in the eigth verse of the third Chapter The winde bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it commeth nor whither it goeth So is every one that is borne of the Spirit The Spirit breathes his own breath blowes his own blast makes his own sound of life himselfe in our spirits and thus are wee born of him It is not all the changes a man can make by the light of naturall truths nay by the light of spirituall truths working them upon his heart with never so much paines that will amount to a new birth but it must be the spirit of Christ breathing this seed into him and forming him into a new creature by this seed As it is water or the word of truth whereby we are begotten So it is God alone who begets and that hee doth of his own inclination too Iam. 1. 18. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth 4. What is it to enter into the Kingdome of God The Kingdome of God is his spirituall dominion in Christ to which every spirituall thing belongs and in which all spirituall excellencies and blessednesses are laid up To enter into this Kingdome is by a spirituall act of the soule to come within the verge and bounds of it even that very act which Nicodemus was speaking of vers. 3. namely an act of true saith by laying hold on Iesus Christ and becomming one with him a man presently hath right unto and entrance into this Kingdome Now saith Christ it is impossible for any man to doe this who is not first new borne hee can never truly mount upward whose earthly nature is not first changed A man may talk of spirituall glories and his right unto them but of a truth he is not entred into the Kingdome nor cannot by true Faith who is not born againe and that both of water and the spirit To partake of the priviledges of Christ to have life and blessednesse from him requires a birth of water and of the spirit There must a new birth of water and the spirit precede there without which the person is not in a capacity of it he must bee made up againe of water and that not of his own forming neither but of the spirits forming and then by Faith he enters into the Kingdome and becomes entituled to all the priviledges of the Kingdome which without this birth fore-going cannot be done Vers. 6. In this verse Christ layeth down a position to confirme the truth he had spoken in the former verse There is a necessity of being born of water and the spirit or else a man cannot enter into the Kingdome for that is a spirituall act and a man can act no higher then hee is and hee is not spirituall he is but flesh if hee be borne but of flesh That which is borne of flesh is flesh Flesh here is not to be taken in its latitude but for that part of it which is powerfull in spirituall generation and production for that power of man together with the meanes and engines that hee can come by whether naturall or spirituall whereby he works a change in his own heart or upon others in imitation of that change which God alone doth and can work by his Spirit Nature Reason Art with all the advantages they can possibly desire or have Nature enlightened and purified by reason and art Nature furnished as much as may bee with the knowledge of God with desires to be like God to recover his image to obey him c. This is here meant by flesh and doth more directly thus reach the state of Nicodemus to whom Christ spake whose present conviction was wrought by Christs Miracles meeting with his reason and ingenuity then if it were understood in a more grosse ence To bee borne of the flesh denotes the greatest change that possibly can be made in a man by this power with all the meanes that it can use The change is so great that a man is new born becomes a new man is changed inside and outside both to his own appearance and in the thoughts of others It is an imitation of that work whereby God brings a man forth a new man The flesh will take his tooles set about his work and seem to produce the same effect bring forth the New Birth but in truth and substance it fals short of it for it is but flesh This birth when a man hath done all he can used all the spirituall meanes hee can yet it is but flesh The fruit can have no more vertue or strength and spirituality then the root had from whence it did proceed which was but flesh and though there were never so many spirituall engines in the hand of flesh yet this will not alter the case for those engines cannot work of themselves and the flesh cannot make them work
A Touchstone or Tryall OF FAITH BY The Originall from whence it springs and the Root out of which it grows Held out By way of EXPOSITION of the 12 and 13 verses of the first Chapter of Iohn's Gospel and of the six former verses of the third Chapter which treat expresly about this point Intended Not for the disquiet of any but for the eternall Rest and Peace of all to whom the Lord shall please to make it usefull thereunto To which is added The Spirituall Practise of CHRISTIANS in the Primitive Times LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black Spread-Eagle at the West end of Pauls 1648. To the Reader READER IF thou hast any leasure from partaking in or exclaming against the bitter contentions of this present age which have eat out most mens content in themselves and their pleasingnesse to others Here are some serious considerations proposed to thee as thou wilt one day acknowledge when thine eyes come to be fully opened It is high time to look out after some other place and certainty of entertainment there when this earth by its continuall shaking and cracking under us doth so often threaten that it will not long support us There is no true security for us but by Faith in Chrisst he is the only Rock and there is no stepping thither but by Faith there is no certainty but by an assured knowledge of the truth of this Faith whereof there are so many and such accurate cheats that it is not possible to discern the difference without through sifting and scanning The Devill that great cozouning merchant hath all kinde of counterfeit wares which hee paints and guilds that he may put off for true He hath grosser ware for the grosser sort whom he can content with any thing but more refined stuffe for such as look more narrowly into things Men that are openly vaine and prophane yet can hardly bee beaten off from it but that they love God and have such a Faith as will carry them to heaven though they doe not live so strictly as others yet they believe in Christ and that is it God looks after This deceit thou seest through oh stricter soule but know withall the Devill hath more curious counterfeits wherein there is the exact proportion of the thing resembled all but the life and power yea he is cunning also in imitating the life and power of every thing he hath a resemblance of that too for those that will not otherwise be content to keep them from attaining the truth and substance which if they were not thus deceived by him with the similitude of they would not cease to pursue Thou art confident thou art not deceived so are all that are deceived the Devill could not deceive thee with that which is false if he did not withall work in thee a perswasion that it is true What will it hurt thee to try and try thoroughly Nay surely it will much advantage thy very confidence After tryall thou mayst be confident upon knowledge now thou art confident but upon supposition and if thou shouldest at last prove mistaken thou wouldest have too much time to befoole thy selfe and bewaile thy confidence thou wilt be more angry that thou wert pressed no further to tryall then thou art now offended that thou art pressed so much to it Thou art but a Traveller in this world and yet thou wilt look after a sure title in these transitory things oh look that there be not a flaw in thy title to thy true inheritance And if thy spirit be seriously bent towards this employment here perhaps the Lord may administer to thee some help and direction or furnish thee better some other way when he shall see good The way of tryall here propounded is certaine though somewhat difficult yea indeed altogether impossible without the help of Gods Spirit And yet what sweeter safer truer direction can be given to us poore weak empty creatures who are nothing who can doe nothing then to fly to him who is able to do all things to issue out that power to us and manage it in us whereby the thing we desire may be effected and to waite quietly upon him in our present uncertaine condition till he shall please to do it rather then patch up a satisfaction of our own And this way of tryall is not any invention of mine but it is plainly represented in these Scriptures from the mouth of Iohn and Christ referring the tryall of Faith to the birth and of the birth to the Spirit as thou mayst more fully see in the Discourse it selfe to which I now leave thee to make what use of it the Lord shall direct thee Thine in what the Lord pleaseth Isaac Pennington A Touchstone or Tryall OF FAITH JOHN 1. VERS 12. 13. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sonnes of God even to them that believe on his Name Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God THis sweet and soaring Evangelist having glanced at the excellency of our Lord Christ in his relation to God being his Word his presence and onenesse with God vers. 1. in his influence upon all things he gave them their being vers. 3. he gave them their life too for it was first in him and his life containes all that light that man at any time receiveth either naturall or spirituall either from and through the creatures in at the windowes of his own sence and reason or more immediately from the Spirit of God into his own spirit vers. 4. Having thus given a generall and pithy description of him who was to be the maine subject of his discourse he comes in the next place to speak of his fore-runner and what of Christ might be learned from him He describeth this fore-runner 1. By his mission he was sent from God hee did not goe of his owne head but God bid him goe 2. By his name His name was John vers. 6. 3. By the end of his comming it was for to be a witnesse to testifie somewhat from God unto the world 4. Concerning what he was to witnesse It was concerning that light he had spoken of that came into the world and shined in the darknesse uncomprehended by the darknesse that this was the light indeed 5. To what end he was to witnesse this that all through him might believe that by his meanes men might universally come to acknowledge this light and to cast themselves upon it to lead them unto life vers. 7. In vers 8. he removes a mistake which might arise in men minds concerning this end He was not that light but to beare witnesse of that light as if hee had said do not mistake he was not this light himself he came not to that end to be the light but only to give in a testimony from God concerning the light to tell men which was it that men might not have
recourse to him but to the light he was to point with the finger at Christ and to send men thither And hee gives a reason why Iohn could not bee this light vers. 9. because he wanted the property of this light This light is the originall light as it was described before who hath all light in him who giveth out all light who is the very light The true light that lightneth every man that commeth into the world It is he gives the light of reason to every man that comes into this outward world it is he gives the light of the spirit to every man that enters by faith into the inner world Now Iohn was not this true light this very light but only had his candlelighted by it Vers. 10. The Evangelist proceeds further to describe this light He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world know him not He did not only enlighten the world from the beginning of it but at length he himselfe came into the world and the world had a neere relation to him for hee gave it its being it was the workmanship of his hands and yet the world knew him not though he had not foâ—gotten the world but came in due time to look after it yet the world had forgotten him and knew not who he was Yea he came to his owne vers. 11. his own people the Iewes whom he had selected out of the world whom he had alwayes cherished to whom hee had promised this comming of his and who had long expected it and yet they received him not All this seemeth to be the Answer of an Objection such an Objection as this Object If Christ was the light what need he have such an one as Iohn to goe and proclaime it what need Iohn come to beare witnesse of him light discovers it selfe The Sun needs none to goe and proclaime that there is light in it If this were the fountaine of light the very light indeed what need hath he of Iohn's testimony of Iohn's finger to point at him Answ. Yes saith he need enough for though he was in the world yea and was the great Architect of the world yet the world knew him not and though he came to his own people who had all the light of God that was in the world yet they received him not The world they did not know him the Iewes they would not own him though they did partly know him yet they did not like him Surely he who was thus unknown who lay hid in the field of the world to the world who was thus rejected by his own had great need of a witnesse to declare to the world who he was and to testifie to the stubborn Jewes their rebellion against the light But then it may further be demanded what did the Iewes loose by not receiving or what should the world gaine by comming to this light when they were pointed to it by Iohn Why very much as verse the 12th holds out But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sonnes of God They should gaine this great dignity to be the sons of God comming into Union and Fellowship with him they should partake of his honour from and interest in the Father Christ would give them this priviledge to become the sonnes of the most High to go and call him Father and desire any fatherly act of him and if he be questioned for it tell him Christ bid him doe so hee gave him this right and priviledge to bee a sonne What meanes that what is it to have a Father what is it to be a sonne It includes these three things in it 1. Carefull education by the Father 2. A sonlike spirit in himself from the Father 3. A sonlike inheritance for himself with the Father Each of these is included in this prerogative of being a sonne 1. Carefull education by the Father The Father is to nurture and bring up his child sutable to his own state and degree This is an universall law of nature and universally observed by every creature every creature brings up what it brings forth and doubtlesse the substance of this law is written on Goâ—s heart who hath written the image of it on every thing that comes from him Now Education hath these three things in it First Instruction in such literature as becomes such a sonne Thou maist goe to God for such knowledge as becomes a sonne of God thou art to bee brought up in the knowledge of the most High this is thy right It is written in the Prophets And they shall be all taught of God they shall all know me from the least to the greatest The least of them shall not want sutable knowledge They shall all know God who is the greatest thing to be known and whom it requires the highest life to know This is life eternall to know thee the only true God Secondly Preservation from dangers The Father is to provide Tutors and Governours to look to the child that he doe not wrong himselfe nor that any else wrong him When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and thorow the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee All things shall work together for good to them that love God The stones of the field shall be at peace with thee Creatures men devils temtations sins corruption nothing shall hurt them nor they shall not hurt themselves nothing can hurt them but departing from God and their Father will look to that too I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Ier. 32. 40. Thirdly Provision of meat drink cloathes recreations and whatsoever else is needfull for him sutable to his degree This God wil take care for too he will take care of this for the body Hee that feeds the Ravens and cloathes the Lillies shall he not much more feed and cloath you but it is their spirit heâ—â—s specially the Father of that is his child and spirituall meat drink cloathes recreations c. hee will not faile to provide for it He will give grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold The Lions may suffer hunger and want food for their bodies but none of his shall want food for their spirits as he promiseth the poore captive exile who is banished from his presence and in captivity under Satan bound in his pit he promiseth him that he shall not die there nor his bread faile there Esay 51. 14. The words in the Hebrew are in the future tense He shall not die in the Pit and his bread shall not faile 2. A sonlike spirit It is naturall to the sonne to be like the father but why because he hath it from his father God also will put his Spirit into his Sonnes I will put my Spirit within you Indeed it is the spirit of a son
such guides as have had glorious pretences in view but corrupt ends in their hearts they become ten times worse at present and will be ten times more miserable at last then if they had never known such and such wayes of Religion or had not been so zealous in them But this is not the true birth neither whence true Faith doth flow all the changes that are made in us from any corrupt end or desire of our own or of any others whatsoever will bee of little valew to us 3. Nor of the will of man The will of man being distinguished from the will of the flesh notes the purest and most ingenuous part and that either in a mans selfe or any other It notes that desire that is naturally in man to finde out God and his will and to worship and please him and so to use the best meanes the soule can meet with in reference thereunto as seeking into his word hearing conferring praying and observing what it findes to be his will This indeed is noble ingenuous and acceptable in the sight of God in its kind and degree but yet it doth not rise so high as this birth that is here spoken of All this prosecuted by the soule yet will never bring it to God though God doth ordinarily if not alwayes bring such persons to himselfe whom he thus seriously and constantly inclines Nor will this desire in others with all the meanes they can use accomplish it though they themselves be new born yet this will not beget another though the most pretious Saint that is should never so earnestly desire the begetting of a soule to God out of the purest ends that might be and should use all spirituall means towards it pray hard to God diligently spread the knowledge of Christ before the person and begge on him day after day with teares to pitty his poore perishing soule yet all this will not doe Abraham did as much for Ishmael as could be done if the will of man would have done it he was carefull to instruct his whole Family but in a speciall manner very faine would he have had grace breathed into him Oh that Ishmael might live before thee How faine would Isaac have had the blessing runne to Esau how much did Christ doe for the Iewes how large were his affections Oh that thou hadst known at least in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace how vaste his paines All the day long have I stretched out my hands to a foolish and gain-saying people So Paul for the Iewes Rom. 9. 2 3. The Apostles of Christ though they did travell with men yet they could not beget or bring forth whom they would and those persons that were born of this will of theirs yet that birth came to nothing they fell away from the Faith afterwards both from Christ while he was alive as this book abundantly testifies and from the Churches after his ascention So that here are the three great engines of Religion which turn all the world upside downe and make almost all the changes in Religion among men Tradition Corruption Reason and Ingenuity they are all here discarded as not being able to convey the true birth whence true Faith proceeds Then at last the Evangelist having shewn whence it did not proceed sheweth also whence it did proceed both the birth and the faith but of God the birth comes from God the faith from the birth or from the new born child God by his Spirit breathes a breath of life into him puts a new principle within him and by vertue of this he comes to believe on Christ God by the power of his Grace changeth him and maketh him a new creature and then he comes to put forth this new act of true and spirituall Faith God soweth a seed in him causeth this seed to grow and at length bringeth it forth so that the child is born and then Faith naturally after the law and manner of the Divine nature sprouts from it The first act of the living child is to exercise the power of Faith which before lay hid in him And this is done this birth is brought about not from a mans own will whether corrupt or ingenuous nor from the will of any else but from God from his will of his own will begat he us Iam. 1. 18. This and this alone is the true birth For a close to these two verses take notice of these foure great truths wherein much of the Gospel doth lie three of them are contained in these two verses the first of them in the fore-going part of the Chapter 1. That Christ is the light come into the world to lighten men out of their darknesse there is no getting out of spirituall darknesse but by Christ the true and only spirituall light 2. The persons for whom he doth this must believe must receive him by faith for their light 3. Faith proceeds from the new birth a man must be new born that he may believe 4. The great priviledge Christ bestowes on those that believe which is this he gives them Authority to become the sonnes of God Those that will be the sonnes of God must believe on his Christ Those that will believe on Gods Christ must be born of God Those that are born of God cannot but believe on Christ and Christ cannot but lighten them out of their darknesse for that end he came IOHN 3. Vers. 1. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Iewes 2. The same came to Iesus by night and said unto him Rabbi we know that thou ' art a teacher come from God for no man can doe these miracles that thou doest except God be with him 3. Iesus answered and said unto him Verily verily I say thee except a man be borne againe he cannot see the Kingdome of God 4. Nicodemus saith unto him How can a man be born when hee is old can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be borne 5. Iesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God 6. That which is borne of the flesh is flesh and that which is borne of the spirit is spirit Here is an excellent Dispute betweene Christ and Nicodemus concerning true Faith Iohn had described it before in the twelf and thirteenth verses of the first Chapter where hee had shewed that those that did indeed believe were born of God This act of Faith in them which did entitle them unto Christ and whereupon they did receive the right of Sonship in and from him did not proceed from any light set before them by men nor from any inclination of heart which man could work in them but from a new principle of life breathed into their soules by God Here the case is more fully argued betweene Christ and Nicodemuus Nicodemus a Pharisee and Rules of the Iewes comes to Christ
spiritually So that all the births produced by man are but fleshly all the changes man can make in his own heart or any else is but from flesh to flesh from grosser flesh to flesh somewhat more refined Conversion by Miracles and strong arguments is but a fleshly conversion all the wayes that man can take to bring his owne heart to believe to close in with Christ to love Christ can produce but a fleshly Faith a fleshly love all the wayes man can take to kill and subdue sinne in him it is but a fleshly mortifying of sinne sinne is truly alive for all this and will discover its life again when it sees its time Christ doth especially allude to the Miracles that were in Nicodemus his eye wer 't thou born of these thy birth is but fleshly how spirituall soever such a person may seeme how spiritually soever he may seem to act yet at the root he is but fleshly The change is made but by flesh and the thing changed is still but flesh how glorious soever the change may seeme Think well of it it cannot be said too often all the wayes and meanes man can use to bring up his heart to God they are but fleshly and can produce but fleshly operations in him all this Faith and holinesse though raised to never so great an height it is but that his heart must bee mortified to if ever he live spiritually Oh! it would be sweet and profitable to consider the abundance of fleshly changes wherewith the Devill cozens men They see a reall change in themselves and so think they are sure whereas it is but a reall fleshly change not a reall spirituall change and so indeed not reall in the true sence a change from naturall unbeliefe to naturall Faith for there is a power in nature to believe which may either bee afrighted or perswaded to put forth it selfe for its own preservation Nature being convinced of its present danger and that there is no way of safety but by believing on Christ which Faith must bee accompanied with love to Christ the truths of Christ the people of Christ and that this love must shew it selfe in obedience Nature I say being convinced of this does presently muster up all its forces of Faith love obedience laying them at Christs feet to dispose of it will trust him love what he will have it love obey what he will command it hate what he will have it hate deny it selfe its own ends interests c. there is nothing so spirituall but it will undertake and goe thorough after its manner rather then perish and alas what is this All this is but nature working from its own principle with its own power to its own end There is no new birth necessary to all this though all this doth also proceed from a new birth where it is after more a excellent manner then nature can attaine to But now that which is borne or begotten of the Spirit is Spirit that which the spirit begets which the spirit produceth is spirit That Faith that love to God which hee breathes into a man that is truly spirituall If a mans heart bee changed not by reason not by the power of Miracles but by him by his immediate power then the change is true and sound As it is the spirit who begets so that which is begotten by him with that water which he useth in his act of generation is a true and spirituall birth There are three particulars which discover the reality of spirituall things as well as of other things 1 The originall from whence they come 2 the nature whereof they are and 3 the effects which they produce Every spirituall thing it commeth from the spirit it is spirituall it selfe and it worketh spiritually there is a true tincture of its nature and of its originall in every effect it produceth As every naturall man is begotten by a man hath the nature of a man in himselfe and acteth like a man worketh the operations of a man So every new man every spirituall man is begotten by the spirit hath the nature of the spirit in him and discovereth his nature and originall in every one of his spirituall motions and actions His Faith his love every thing in him proceeds from the spirit partakes of the nature of the spirit moveth and acteth spiritually The former of these Christ argues the truth of the new birth from in this place its comming from the spirit that which is born of the spirit is spirit What ever the spirit worketh in a man is truly spirituall that light he shews is true spirituall light that grace he gives is true spirituall grace that change hee makes is a true spirituall change but all other changes are but countersets of that true spirituall one which he alone can make And this may shew us the reason why there are so many changes in this flitting age it is because most men are changed by the flesh the greatest power of flesh still changeth them A strong Objection which they cannot answer will startle any man that is changed by a power of flesh Hence men take up one practise to day another to morrow now acknowledge this or that for a truth by and by it is false then true againe why because they see not things by the light of the spirit which never varies but by a force of argument by a power of reason which sometimes appeares stronger sometimes weaker sometimes greater sometimes lesser but a soule whose light is changed whose practises are changed by the spirit that change remaineth good let all the winds and gusts of arguments blow never so strongly Take heed therefore of changing your apprehensions or practises about any thing till you can say the spirit changeth them else it will be but a fleshly change What further remaines but that every one that loveth his soule should lay this to heart and consider thoroughly according to the weightinesse and importance of it how it is with him what that religion is whereupon he groundeth his hopes what oyl feeds his lamp whence his Faith his love came and of what rank and kind they are And not to doe this slightly or determine suddenly as is most usuall with men in matters of Religion but as on the one hand to be thankfull unto God for and make much of the least hope which is not every ones lot so on the other hand not to rest satisfied or let God alone till he hath brought us to an absolute certainty then and not till then we may safely without hazard give over the debate of this question And though we may perhaps be a long while before we attaine it yet if God carry on our hearts in the pursuite we may meet with sweet pledges and refreshings in the way as may much mitigate Gods seeming tediousnesse in deferring our full satisfaction herein And indeed though God leads his people in such harsh and difficult wayes to the eye of