things which the Revealed Will of God requires of us may rest assured that he is in the Spirit For he saith St. John in his first Epistle chap. 3. ver 24. that keepeth God's Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him The Scriptures I say being the only Rule now left us by which we can judge of the goodness or pravity of our Actions every one may hence easily know and conclude in himself whether he is in the Spirit by being conscious to himself whether he forms his Life and Actions according to the Precepts laid down in the Gospel as the only measure of his Obedience And this I dare say that each particular Man or publick Communion of Christians of what denomination or Country soever it may be has most of the Spirit that comes the nearest to this Rule Christianity requires of us all a firm Faith and a sincere Obedience to the things it enjoyns and he that hath the first and faithfully dischargeth the latter that is he who hath a Faith to believe what is required and lives exactly according to his belief may be assured that he is in the Spirit because he does that which God requires of him and for which he shall hereafter receive that exceeding great Reward which God has promised in his Word That the governing ones Life and Actions according to the rules and temper of the Gospel is the being in the Spirit is a truth besides as safe as it is certain for he who orders himself this way will be sure never to do amiss because he will always modestly keep within the bounds which his duty prescribes him Whereas he who is led by other notions of being in the Spirit and has no other rule for his Actions but that motion and warmth he feels within him may easily by mistaking a hot and extravagant Fancy for the sacred impulse of the Holy Spirit be guilty of very bad things and thus too often be unluckily found a Fighter against God at that very time he thinks himself immediately Inspired by Him From what therefore has been said every sober and serious Man may easily know and conclude when he is in the Spirit if he shews in every thing he does that Temper which the Gospel requires of us if in a steady and regular Conversation of Life he expresseth that Love Joy Peace Long-suffering that Gentleness Goodness Faith that Meekness and Temperance Vertues against which there is no Law and that are all of them so eminently required in Christians let such a one go on as he has begun and never doubt of his being in the Spirit because he shews so much of that which St. Paul calls the Fruit of it On the other hand Gal. 5. â—2 let Men fansie what they please of their being in the Spirit if their Lives and Actions are not conformable to the Temper of that Gospel which is to be their Rule If their stiffness to their own Sentiments makes them value and consider none but themselves If their Zeal for their own Sect or Opinion makes them exclude all others from their Charity who are not of their own Communion and Party If that Love which is such a peculiar Mark and Character of a Christian is not extended even to those who perhaps may little deserve it at their hands If instead of that Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith which are all the beauties and excellencies of a Christian Life they are full of Hatreds Variances Emulations Strifes If instead of that Meekness and Temperance which are Vertues that make us easie both to our selves and others they are guilty of Envyings Murthers Drunkenness Revellings and such like In a word if Mens inward Temper or outward Deportment be such as carries them to such extreams as are inconsistent with the Duties which the revealed Will of God has enjoyned us let such of what Church Sect or Opinion soever they may be pretend to what they please and gild over their Actions with fine and godly Words they are such Ver. 19. however to whom we may justly apply that of St. Jude These be they who separate themselves being Sensual not having the Spirit And now I come 3dly to shew the Obligations which lie on us all of walking in the Spirit The walking in the Spirit being as I have already shewn the conforming our selves to the Rules and Precepts of the Gospel Our Obligations of doing this will appear 1st From the reasonableness that there is of living according to what we believe 2dly From the easiness of the Things enjoyned us And lastly Because this wholly tends to our own Interest and Advantage 1. Then I shall shew the Obligations of walking in the Spirit from the reasonableness of living according to what we believe The firm adhering to what a Man believes and the ordering his Life according to his Belief is a thing so very decent and pleasing in the Eyes of all Mankind that it is natural for one to commend such a practice even in that very Man whose Opinion we may otherwise condemn On the other side let a Man be never so Orthodox in his Faith if he is scandalous and irregular in his Life this raises such an inward scorn and disesteem in the Breast of all good and understanding Men as is sufficient to testisie what a low and mean Opinion the World generally has of such a Person For when there is not that harmony which there should be betwixt ones belief and practice when the Holiness of Mens Lives does not answer the purity of that Religion they profess it either argues a wonderful falseness and design in desiring to appear otherwise than they really are or a strange insensibility and neglect not to mind that which of all other things is their greatest concern 'T is mean and pitiful to be a bare Pretender in any thing but it is really wicked and unaccountable to be so in matters of Religion where the greatest sincerity of Mind is required and believe me all is but Hypocrisie and folly without it All Religion naturally supposes an Obedience to the Things it enjoyns and Christianity is so very exact in this above all others that whosoever shall keep the whole Law of it and yet ossend in one point he is guilty of all If those therefore who call themselves Christians are really perswaded of the truth of the Gospel is it not most reasonable they should be of that temper it requires If Men are convinced of the excellency of the Precepts which Christ has commanded is it any thing less than Madness not to follow them to the uttermost And what a strange degree of folly is it in them not to make that the constant Rule of their Lives which they themselves confess to be the only means of their Happiness But 2dly Our obligations of walking in the Spirit will appear from the easiness of the things enjoyned us Christianity is a thing so very plain and simple that never any
Insinuations of wicked and designing Men desiring again to be under the Law and to observe Circumcision As the general drift therefore of the Apostle in this Epistle is to shew them that this new dispensation of the Gospel had freed them from the rigour of the Law that is from the necessity of Mofaical Rights and Observances and from that exact and perfect Obedience required under the Penalty of the Curse So again least under pretence of that freedom which the Gospel had given them they should be guilty of those vicious Practices which their false Teachers so industriously endeavoured to infuse He advises them particularly in this Chapter to order all their actions according to the Spirit of that Gospel which they had received and if they pretended to Christianity they should follow the Rules it prescribes If we live in the Spirit saith he let us also walk in the Spirit Having spoken thus much concerning that which gave occasion to the Words I shall now proceed to tell you First What it is to walk in the Spirit Secondly How we shall know when we are in the Spirit Thirdly I shall shew the Obligations which lie on us all to walk in the Spirit And Lastly From what shall be thus said I shall conclude all with some close reflections on our own Lives and Practices 1. Then What it is to Walk in the Spirit The word Spirit has many and very different significations in the Holy Scriptures and it would be no less tedious than improper to reckon them all up in this place Sometimes it is taken for that supream divine faculty that is in us the Soul of Man and for the various Passions of Joy or Grief which either please or disturb us Sometimes it is taken for a temper of Religion for an oeconomy or dispensation which is settled and prescribed us by God Thus the Law is called Rom. 8.15 The Spirit of Bondage which indeed was a severe and an harsh dispensation so opposite to that which in the same Verse is called The Spirit of Adoption which is that tender and gentle way of God's proceeding with us now under the Gospel And in this sence of a temper of Religion is to be taken our Saviour's Answer to his Disciples in his passage thro' Samaria when some of them were all transport and fury at the inhospitality of the Samaritans Luk. 9.53 who would not receive our Lord because his Face was as though he would go to Jerusalem and therefore they being impatient to shew a Revenge proportionable to the Affront they thought our Lord had received waited only for a Commission from him of Commanding Fire to come down from Heaven Lord said they wilt thou that we command Fire to come down from Heaven consume them as Elias did But the blessed Jesus turned and rebuked them Ver. 55. and said Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of that is ye know not that that oeconomy or dispensation which I intend to establish by the Gospel inspires Men with easie and with forbearing Tempers and with a higher degree of Charity than was ever yet required or practised by the Prophets under the Law For these Men were often moved and impowered with an inward Zeal to destroy without any more ado the Enemies of God But the temper of the Gospel is to be otherwise for The Son of Man saith he came not to destroy Mens Lives but to save them Ver. 56. Sometimes the word Spirit is taken for those super-natural and extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost which were so very common in the first Ages of the Church Thus St. Paul arguing in this Epistle with the Galatians about the wonderful Advantages they had received upon their embracing the Gospel says Gal. 3.2 This only would I learn of you Received you the Spirit by the Works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith where by the Spirit is to be understood the several Gifts of it and the diversities of Operations of which we have a particular account given in the 12. Ch. of the 1st of the Corinthians Ver. 7. And which were given to every Man to prosit withal But not to run on in many and foreign significations of the Word by the Spirit in the Text is only and properly as I judge to be understood the Gospel it self in which sence both in this and in other places of St. Paul's Epistles it is taken as opposed to the Law set forth under the Title of the Flesh So then by walking in the Spirit is here to be meant the governing ones self according to the Rules and Precepts of the Gospel The imitating that sacred Temper of which we have the Commands and Pattern in Christ And instead of following the Lusts and Desires of the Flesh the secular and sensual Ends to which this World naturally carries Men and which are so eagerly pursued by the greatest part of Mankind We should strictly live up to the Religion we profess by ordering our Conversation according to the Gospel of Christ And this will 2dly inform us how We shall know when we are in the Spirit There have been in all Ages of the Church strange Pretenders to the Spirit and to the immediate Inspirations of it which is a thing no less vain in it self than pernicious in its Consequences Men of dark and melancholy Tempers are those who most commonly run this way for they being the Persons who generally Think most and in whom impressions being once made stick the longest when ever it happens that they entertain any false Opinions in Religion they are always defended by them with that Obstinacy and inward Pride as will not admit the least contradiction So that the most convincing Reasons and powerful Arguments which commonly have a happy and good effect on free and ingenuous Minds do but make these Men the worse and the greater opposition they at any time find from Reason or publick Authority the more they value themselves upon their opposition to both And thus the violent working of Conceit and a spiritual Pride raises within them an odd heat and Zeal which at last turns it self into down-right Enthusiasm and thus these Men unhappily mistaking a warmth and transport within them for Divine Inspiration and looking on that as a super-natural effect which really after all is but the pure notions of Blood and Spirits They are from hence often guilty of those extravagancies in which neither Reason nor Religion can justifie them and of which ours as well as other Neighbouring Countries have often felt the sad and lamentable Effects But after all let some Mens pretences be what they please to inward Motions and immediate Inspirations of the Spirit this is certain and infallible That as God has only left us his Word in the Scriptures as the sole Rule and Measure of our Obedience and according to which we are to direct and govern our Lives and Actions so he that performs the
A SERMON Preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen OF THE City of London AT Guild-Hall Chappel On Sunday Novemb. 13. 1692. By RICHARD BOWCHIER B. D. Fellow of St. John's College in Cambridge and Chaplain to the Right Reverend Father in God Robert Lord Bishop of Chichester LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1692. TO THE Right Honourable Sir John Fleet Lord Mayor of London MY LORD WHen I was appointed to Preach before Your Lordship I little imagined That what was then delivered would have ever receiv'd Your Lordships Orders to be made Publick I am my Lord truly conscious to my self of the meanness of this Discourse but instead of making Apologies I here entirely resign my self to Your Lordship's Commands which both shews my Obedience and at the same time furnishes me with an excellent opportunity of telling the World with what a great Respect and Duty I am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most obedient Servant RICHARD BOWCHIER Galatians chap. 5. ver 25. If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit THE words seem to be an earnest and passionate Exhortation to the practice of a Religious and a Christian Life drawn from that particular and exact account of the Works of the Flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit which the Apostle has given us from the 18th to the 24th verse of this Chapter and the occasion of them in short was this As the Church of God has in all Ages been troubled with Men of corrupt Morals and pernicious Principles so in the very first beginnings of Christianity there rose up a sort of Men who as they were the first Hereticks we ever read of so for their damnable Opinions and wicked Lives have much out-done all others of succeeding Times They were Men in whom there appeared wonderful Falseness and Design and who taking always advantage of the Apostle's Absence had by their false and pleasing Doctrines almost every where corrupted that Faith which the other planted Thus we find that they immediately crept in amongst the Churches in the Vpper Asia where they made such speedy work in perverting the Gospel and had by new Scruples and false Suggestions so quickly shaken that Faith which at first seemed so well grounded in the Galatians as occasioned that mighty surprise in St. Paul to find such a sudden change and alteration amongst them I marvel saith he Galat. chap. 1. ver 6. that you are so soon removed from him who called you into the Grace of Christ unto another Gospel These Deceivers designing nothing but Ease and Interest urged vehemently on the new Converted Christians Circumcision and other Mosaical Rites not out of any Principle or a real Perswasion there was in them of the necessity of either but from a base and servile compliance to the humour of the Jews hoping this way either to gain their Favour or escape their Fury For they constrained others to be Circumcised Galat. 6.12 13. only least they themselves should suffer Persecution for the Cross of Christ for neither they themselves saith the Apostle who were Circumcised kept the Law but desired to have others Circumcised that they might glory in the Flesh And as it is easie and natural for Men who can once force their Consciences either for fear or Interest to stick at nothing afterwards how black or desperate soever it may be when they are prest to it by the like motives so these Men having once Preached up Circumcision for fear of the Jews made no scruple afterwards to declare it lawful to deny even Christ himself to avoid Persecution for him 2 Pet. 2.1 Thus denying the Lord who bought them These are the Men whom the Apostles point at in almost all their Epistles and on whom they bestow such black and dismal Characters as never could have been fastned but on the worst of Men Phil. 3.19 Enemies saith St. Paul to the Cross of Christ whose God was their Belly whose Glory their shame who minded Earthly things Without natural Affection Truce-breakers False Accusers Incontinent 2 Tim. 3 4. Fierce Despisers of those that were Good Traytors heady high-minded lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God having a form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof St. Peter's Character is no less severe concerning them in his second Epistle whom he stiles Chap. 2. Natural brute Beasts spots and blemishes beguiling unstable Soulss Wells without Water Clouds saith he that were carried with a Tempest to whom the Mist of Darkness was reserved for ever Vngodly Men saith St. Ver. 4. Jude speaking of the same Persons turning the Grace of God into Lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ These are the coulours in which they are set forth to us by the Apostles of our Lord and as these Characters to be sure were exactly drawn from their Carriages so then there is nothing can be thought so wicked and abominable so contrary to Reason and so destructive to Religion as that of which these Men were guilty and of which they stand recorded infamous to all succeeding Times Pleasure and Interest being that great principle that inspired all their Actions they followed that to the uttermost And as Mens Inclinations and Desires commonly give a huge byass to their Understandings so they falsly interpreted and used that liberty which the Gospel had given them as an occasion to the Flesh pretending that Christ in effect had set them free from that strict and Religious course of Vertue and Goodness which he came on purpose to establish And thus indulging themselves in the most vicious practices and justifying what they did by high pretences of knowledge they were too far gone in conceit to be reclaimed themselves and too busie and malicious not to corrupt others by their Examples The Infection of these Mens Principles had like a strong Poyson diffused it self thro' the Body of all the Churches for the greatest part of Mankind being naturally unstable and not being able so easily to penetrate into the Designs and Artifices of false Teachers The greatest and most corrupt part of any Communion will commonly embrace and follow those Doctrines which suit best with their Pleasures and Interests And thus the case was now particularly in the Churches of the Galatians whose Character indeed is this That they did run well Gal. 5.7 but were afterwards so foolish and bewitched as not to obey the Truth Chap. 3. v. 1 before whose Eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth Crucified amongst them For at the time of St. Paul's Writing this Epistle instead of adhering to that Gospel which he had at first so successfully Preached unto them and which he tells them in his own defence Ch. 1. v. 12. Was that which he received not of Man neither was taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ They were drawn off it seems by the
and do we order our Lives with that circumspection and care as we may not bring the least reproach or dishonour on the other Have we God always in our thoughts and do we daily offer up unto him our Sacrifices of Prayers and Thanksgivings Do we in our Addresses to him heartily bewail our own Sins and the many occasions we may have given others of offending him Do we intercede with God for others as well as for our selves and does the sense of the Miseries and Wants to which Mankind is subject kindle in us that universal and Christian Charity as to beg his blessing on all Men of what Nation Country Religion Sect Principle or Opinion they may be Are we thankful to God for the least Mercy we receive and are we resigned and easie in the meanest condition we may be in Do we study to glorifie God by all means and do we employ our whole time for the Salvation of our Souls Do we live and act as becomes those who really think there are Rewards and Punishments for Men in the next Life and that we must all be for ever happy or for ever miserable in another World as we behave our selves here in this Do the Thoughts and Consideration of this work in us that serious care and concern as to be always earnest about our own happiness and not to do any thing by which we may miss that Glory which we hope to possess Do we mind that great and excellent Rule of Christianity Mat. 7.12 of doing to others as we would they should do unto us and do we make a Conscience of not promoting our Honour Riches Reputation or Interest by any other means than what Religion prescribes and justifies Do we make the Commands of the Gospel the Rule of our Lives and in all our Actions have we a respect to the Precepts and Example of Christ Phil. 2.5 Is that mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus and do we imitate that Humility of which he made himself such a wonderful Pattern and Example to the World Is that Love by which all Men shall know that we are his Disciples so firm and universal in us that it goes much beyond that of the Publicans by being extended to Enemies as well as Friends Does that Joy Peace Long-suffering that Gentleness Goodness Faith that Meekness and Temperance which are all the Fruits of the Spirit do they I say appear as eminently in our Lives as they are all really necessary to our happiness Are we Merciful and are we Forgiving and do we chearfully relieve the necessities of those who stand in need of our Charity considering That we our selves are also in the Body Are we moderate in our Desires Modest in our Behaviours Peaceful in our Tempers Just to our Promises and exemplary in our Lives These are the general Duties of Christians and it will be well if our Hearts condemn us not when with a severe and searching care we examine our selves how conformable our Lives have been to these Rules Let us now pass on from that general notion of our being Christians to see how we live and act as we are Members of this particular Church We all value our selves I suppose upon our being of the Church of England and it is a blessing for which next to the Redemption of the World we stand most indebted to Heaven but are we as Holy in our Lives as we are Orthodox in our Faith And are we as like the Primitive Christians for Piety and Zeal as much as our Religion and Worship of any other in the World comes the nearest to theirs We come once a Week at least into this or some other House of God and we do well in it but do not many of us by our heedlesness and unconcernedness too often Offer up the Sacrifices of Fools not considering that they do Evil Do we mind the business we are here about and the greatness of that Majesty before which we are now in a more particular manner present Do we think that God is in this place and do we bring with us such thoughts as suit with the Holiness of his House Do we draw near to God with our Hearts as well as with our Lips And have we upon our Minds and Consciences that true sense of his Goodness Justice Power and Mercy as may at the same time raise in us both a Love and a Fear of his Name We fall down formally here upon our Knees and in our Confession we tell God roundly to his Face That we have erred and strayed from his ways like lost Sheep That we have left undone the things which we ought to have done and that we have done the things which we ought not to have done and that there is no health in us nay we go higher yet Communion Service and tell him that we earnestly repent and are heartily sorry for our misdoings that the remembrance of them is grievous unto us and that the burthen of them is intolerable But have we now all this while that hearty contrition and inward sorrow that uneasiness and dissatisfaction in our selves which becomes those who are truly Penitent for their Offences After these large Confessions of our Follies and Sins do we shew a hatred of them by the Reformation of our Lives And are we as careful to amend as we are always ready to confess our Misdoings Do we consider that God is not to be mocked and that when we come here into his presence and pretend to confess our Sins to him without any thoughts of amending them that then we offer up the highest Affront to Heaven and justly provoke God's Vengeance against us for adding Hypocrisie to our other Transgressions As for Baptism and the Supper of the Lord how little do we mind the Vows and Promises which we have made in the one and with what a coldness and unconcernedness do too many of us come to the other we promise in our Baptism to Renounce the Devil and all his Works the vain Pomp and Glory of the World weth all Covetous desires of the same But now where are the Men amongst us who are not lead away Captive by them all Where is that resignation we pretended when we were admitted Members of Christs Flock and to whom does the Humility of the Cross appear more glorious than all the Vanities of the World Where is the dying to Sin and the living to Righteousness And how few are there notwithstanding all their Promises who Manfully fight under Christ's Banner and continue his faithful Soldiers and Servants to their lives end As for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper this Church invites us to it by its Ministers in the name of God calls us in Christ's behalf Communion Service exhorts us as we love our own Salvation that we will be Partakers of this Holy Communion Now we who pretend to be of this Church do we mind the earnest and godly desires of it