Thirdly Our Saviour hath moreover purchased for us a rich supply of Grace to enable us to use the forementioned Means with happy success He hath obtained from his Father by his Perfect Obedience both Active and Passive Authority to send the Holy Ghost powerfully to assist us and hath assured us that those who ask him shall have him in those most excellent and most comfortable words Luke 11. 11 12 13. If a Son shall ask bread of any that is a Father will he give him a stone Or if he ask a fish will he for a fish give him a Serpent Or if he shall ask an Egge will he offer him a Scorpion If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your Heavenly Father give his holy Spirit unto them that ask him And if any of us want the Holy Spirit 's Assistance it is certainly because we either pray not at all for it or not with a sincere and earnest desire that he should root up and destroy every Evil Affection in our Souls Because we are secretly unwilling to let go some beloved lust or other And because we are false to God and our own Souls in those things which he hath put into our Power For 't is certain that not to put forth the power we have already received and yet complain for want of strength is to play the Hypocrities and no wonder if the Holy Spirit of God doth estrange himself and withhold or withdraw his blessed Influences from such persons But as for those who are faithful so far as those Talents reach which they are at present intrusted with our Lord hath promised them that more shall be given them That is the meaning of those words Mark 4. 25. He that hath to him shall be given That is that useth what he hath for no man properly hath or possesseth what he makes no use of 't would be the same thing to him to be without it Nay our Lord doth not only promise to him that hath that more shall be given him but also that he shall have abundantly more Matth. 13. 12. For whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance And he repeats this Chap. 25. 29. And if we were not through wilfulness and carelesness wanting to our selves in putting forth that measure of strength we have as sure as Iesus is the Christ we should fully experiment the truth of this promise We should then feel the Divine Spirit working in us mightily as the Apostle S. Paul saith he did Col. 1. 29. The great things that are spoken concerning the Spirit and of what he shall do in the hearts of men would be then punctually fulfilled in us and we should be satisfied by happy experience that they are not mere words the Holy Ghost would not fail to do all that for us he was sent by our Lord to do It is to be acknowledged with great sadness that both Fleshly and Spiritual Lusts are exceedingly strong and vigorous even in the generality of those that profess Christianity as well as in others and no less than in others that are Strangers to our Religion But this never to be enough lamented Evil doth not proceed from hence that grace is denied to the generality but 't is wholly to be imputed to their Receiving the grace of God in vain and wilfully refusing to comply therewith It is not at all to be ascribed to the Spirits refusing to perform his Office in them or to do in their behalf what doth belong to him but to their refusing to do their part This we are as fully assured of from abundance of Texts of Scripture as we can desire to be The same is to be said of mens so ordinarily falling again and again into those sins which they frequently Pray and Resolve and Vow against This is far from being the account of it that God is not willing to hear their prayers For as S. Iohn speaks 1 Epist. 5. 14. This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us and to ask victory over our Lusts is of all Petitions most agreeable to his will This cannot be the reason of it that the Holy Spirit refuseth to inforce his Preventing or Prevenient with his Assisting Grace that he will not assist some persons in the performance of those good Resolutions which his Preventing Grace hath excited in their Souls But this is the true account hereof viz. Such Persons are undoubtedly wanting in the use of some Necessary Means or other for the subduing their Lusts they do not use all the means our Lord hath appointed and are especially faulty in neglecting particularly the great duty of Consideration They pray it may be very frequently and earnestly too that God would give them strength against this or that Corruption and they add Vows to their Prayers but they add not Consideration to their Prayers and Vows they watch not over themselves disregard the first motions of their Wills and inclinations of their Souls towards the sins or sin they so Pray Resolve and Vow against and are not careful to avoid Temptations And as inconsideration is the chiefest cause of unsuccessfulness in the use of means for the subduing of Corrupt Affections so the gross neglect of that grand Means the Lords Supper but now discoursed of which I hope in no Age nor among any people professing Christianity was ever so common as to our great shame it is in this Age and this Nation this gross neglect I say is questionless a very great cause of so much Non-proficiency in attendance on other Ordinances as is complained of Which Nonproficiency may well be notwithstanding the Promises of the plentiful Effusion of the Spirit and our Saviour's purchasing so rich a supply of Grace for us For our Saviour is no such Friend to Negligence and Carelesness as to dispense his Grace in such a way and manner as that it must necessarily be a motive and encouragement to do nothing or but little our selves But on the contrary he so communicates his Grace and Strength as to make it a great Exciter and Quickner of Endeavours Of this S. Paul assures us in making God's working in us to will and to do or his readiness so to do an argument to perswade us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. Lastly As our Saviour hath purchased for us a rich supply of Grace for the Enabling us to use the Means of our Deliverance with happy success so he hath given us the most powerful Motives and Arguments that can be imagined to prevail upon our Wills to comply and cooperate with this Grace And these Arguments are not only proposed outwardly to us in his Gospel but they are also inforced inwardly upon our hearts as appears by what hath been now said by his Holy Spirit That is they are inforced upon the
plentiful a pouring of Him out in the times of the Gospel There were indeed common as well as more special Gifts of the Spirit in the First Ages For the miraculous ones of speaking all manner of Tongues Prophesying Healing all sorts of Diseases Casting out Devils c. which were the great Witnesses to the truth of Christianity were very common They were not only conferred upon the Apostles but the private Believers These signs said our Saviour shall follow them that believe in my name c. Mark 16. 17. And not onely on those Believers who were sincere Christians but those also whose Lives were not at all answerable to their Christian profession as appears by those words of our Saviour Mat. 7. 22. And several of these miraculous Gifts we have full assurance from Antiquity did continue in the Church though in nothing so plentiful a measure particularly those of Healing Prophesying and Casting out Devils till about the beginning of the Fourth Century when Providence blessed her with a Christian Emperor and she came to be protected by his Sword and Laws and consequently stood not in such need of those Gifts for the keeping her in Heart and the upholding her Credit and Reputation in the World But as these have ceased for many Ages so the abovesaid Fruits of the Spirit are the onely Endowments now remaining which may in a more peculiar manner be ascribed to Him that is they are the onely Supernatural Endowments As to that therefore which is commonly called the Gift of Prayer we have these things to say First That we have not the least reason to believe that the expressions of the very best mens Prayers are now dictated by the Holy Ghost or that they pray by the Inspiration of the Spirit as to Words or Matter I know not that any sober men do pretend to such a Gift as this in Prayer and too many of those that do pretend to it do manifestly declare by the management of their Gift that either they juggle and are gross Cheats or are sadly deluded What slovenly what ridiculous what bold and impudent expressions are ordinarily heard from them And what a deal of nauseating stuff that hath brought a vile scandal upon Religion and furnished Atheistical and Prophane people with matter of derision Even such stuff as that it is no better than a Blaspheming the Holy Ghost to father it upon Him But I delight not to insist upon this Argument It is objected that S. Paul saith Rom. 8. 26. We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered I answer that this Text makes not at all for the purpose of those who in this sence pretend to an ability of praying by the Spirit For as for the Apostle's saying that We know not what to pray for as we ought it is to be limited to Temporal things and wholly to them For we do know that all those things which are necessary to our Eternal Felicity viz. all spiritual Blessings are to be prayed for And we do or may know what all those are without inspiration But we do not know whether worldly Prosperity or Affliction may be best for us or what measure of temporal good things or what particulars of such good things and therefore in reference to these things we are not to pray Absolutely but Conditionally and with a Willingness to be denied if God sees it not good to grant them to us And the following words shew that it is not therefore to be concluded that the Spirit will put it into Good peoples hearts what temporal things they should pray for for they tell us that He will back their Petitions in Heaven by interceding for them with unutterable Groanings not that He will put words into their mouths or suggest matter of Prayer to them I dare not say the Spirit never does thus I should be then too bold but we have no ground to expect or hope He should at least in ordinary cases In short whosoever pretends that his Prayers are dictated by the Holy Ghost must have the very same opinion of them that he hath of the Divinely inspired Writings Secondly I say consequently That an ability of uttering our Minds to Almighty God in great variety of words and phrases is as much a Natural Gift or a Gift acquired in an ordinary way that is by study and frequent practising and exercising as any Art or Ability whatsoever Very bad men have been often known to have a notable Faculty this way and so miserably weak and silly are abundance of people as to admire those for excellent Christians in whom they perceive it though they know them guilty of very great immoralities and they have nothing to commend them but this Faculty But there is no man if he will set himself to it and he be made for it that is prepared with a sufficient measure of Boldness and Confidence with a glib Tongue and a warm Head but may be excellent at it Therefore I say how shamefully ignorant and childish are the Vulgar sort I fear the much greater part that this dexterity at pouring forth words to the King of Heaven without fear or wit with a mighty voice great earnestness and abundance of action shall gain to a man a greater repute with them for a precious Christian than all the above-mentioned real fruits of the Spirit put together Although any Hypocrite that is qualified as we now said may with the greatest ease attain to it Such a brave man as this shall lead multitudes by the Nose work his base designs upon them and infuse what Principles he listeth into them Such Babies are the common People too generally in the affairs of Religion and their Spiritual concerns But Si populus vult decipi decipiatur If Folk will be thus cheated and made a prey of who can help it It may grieve us at the Hearts to think what work the Popish Priests and Jesuits may hereafter make as we know that in Disguises they have already made sad work among these silly Sheep No men in the World having a rarer knack at Extemporary performances and at Feigning and Raising of Passions than many of them have But Thirdly The true Spirit of Prayer consisteth in a deep sense of the Incomprehensible Majesty of the great God of the infinite distance that is between Him and us of our unspeakable Obligations to Him and necessary dependance upon Him In an affecting sense of our own Wretchedness and Sinfulness which makes us altogether unworthy to appear in His presence or to receive the least Favour at His hands In a sense of His infinite Goodness Wisdom and Power and an undoubted Belief that whatsoever is really needful for us He knoweth so to be and is both Able and Willing to confer it upon us when we ask it as we ought in the Name of Iesus Add hereunto entire Resignation of our Wills
said to be weak through the flesh or in regard of the impetuosity and violence of mens fleshly Appetites Rom. 8. 3. Nor is there any express mention in the Ceremonial Law of any necessity of purity of heart This was only represented by the divers legal washings and other Rites the mortification of corrupt Affections was signified by the cutting off the foreskin of the flesh and the great substantial duties were veiled under dark shadows So that a man might be very punctually observant of this Law according to the mere literal sence thereof and yet his Soul remain perfectly under the power of sinful Affections And the Learned Mr. Chillingworth in his Sermon on Gal. 5. 5. saith thus even of the Moral Duties of the two Tables as they are part of the Mosaical Jewish Law viz. That they required only an external obedience and conformity to the Affirmative Precepts thereof and an abstaining from an Outward practice of the Negative They did not reach unto the Conscience no more than the National Laws of other Kingdoms do So that for example when the law of Moses forbids Adultery upon pain of death he that should in his heart lust after a Woman could not be accounted a Transgressor of Moses his law neither was he liable to the punishment therein specified Whereas the Gospel requires not only an Outward and as I may say corporal obedience to God's Commandments but also an inward sanctification of the Soul and Conscience upon the same penalty of everlasting damnation with the former And what is now said proceeds he of the Moral Precepts as they are part of Moses his law by the same proportion likewise is to be understood of the Iudicial And as for the Promises of this Law they were only of Temporal good things and therefore the Gospel is called by the Author to the Hebrews The bringing in of a better hope Chap. 7. 19. And is said to be established upon better promises Chap. 8. 6. 'T is confessed that promises of Heavenly things were contained in those of Earthly as some of the latter were Types of the former particularly the land of Canaan of the Eternal Rest in Heaven and the promises of good things in the general had those of the other life implied in them but there is not the least express mention in this Law of any Life after this I do not say in any part of the Old Testament but in this Law Now then seeing it abounded with Temporal Promises and none but such being in express terms contained therein 't is no wonder if it became an occasion to the sensual Iews of their being the more eager and vehement in prosecuting the profits honours and pleasures of this life as it was of their being the more Mercenary in their obedience The like may be said of the Threatnings of this Law they are all so expressed as if they were only of Present Temporal Evils and the Iews for the most part looking no farther than the outward letter of these Threatnings it was not to be expected that they should be excited by them to obey from any higher motive than the mere fear of such evils as those that did not look beyond the letter of the Promises were obedient only from the hope of some sensual present good And by this means especially did this Law Gender to bondage as we read it did Gal. 4. 24. The terrible manner in which the Law was given and the Threatnings of Present death or other temporal Calamities upon the Transgression thereof did occasion that slavish sear which the Apostle calls the Spirit of bondage in those words Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear Rom. 8. 5. God dealt with the Iews as it was most fit to deal with such a carnal such a stiff-necked stubborn and disingenuous people who would not be wrought upon and overcome by love to himself or a sense of the loveliness of Virtue and true Goodness nor regard any Laws but such as were enforced with severe present Penalties or promises of sensual good things Which obedience of theirs was most truly and properly the obedience of Slaves a Servile and Mercenary Obedience So that this Law having been abused by the Iews to the so much the more captivating them to their fleshly lusts for this reason chiefly was it laid aside namely because the Liberty which consisteth in a thorough compliance with the Rules of Righteousness the Obligation of this Law would have greatly obstructed the promoting of And the things expresly required in this Law being such as had no internal goodness in them being weak and beggarly Elements as the Apostle calls them Gal. 4. 9. the imposition of many such must needs be apt to call away mens Minds and Affections from those that are essentially and immutably good whilest the spiritual meaning of those injunctions is either not understood or not attended to And that it had this effect upon the generality of the Iews by this means is a case too plain to need to be proved And though the great substantial duties which are in their own nature Good and Necessary and of Eternal obligation were inculcated upon them by all their Prophets as well as taught by Natural Light such as Doing Iustice loving Mercy walking humbly with God and the like yet they generally were so sottish as to think that He valued Sacrifices and the other Ceremonial and External Performances of the Law so much above such Duties nay though he had expresly also declared the quite contrary as that their exact and diligent observation of those would make expiation for their remisness in these and fully satisfie for gross immoralities They trusted in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these implying that their continual attendance on the services there performed according to the prescription of the Law would effectually secure them from Divine vengeance although they refused to amend their ways and were never so immoral in their Practices And their constant Trading in Sacrifices in Rituals and Ceremonial things occasioned their having but very little sense of things Morally good so that that distinction was almost lost among them of things Positively and Morally so or things good only because commanded and things commanded because good Their being so intent upon a many little things caused them to sleight and overlook the great ones as our Saviour told the Pharisees Luke 11. 42. Ye tithe Mint and Rue and all manner of Herbs and pass over judgment and the love of God And Mat. 23. 23. Ye pay tith of Mint and Anise and Cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law judgment mercy and faith And their omitting these things was too plain an Argument alone though there is other proof of it of their having scarcely any notion of things Absolutely Immutably and Essentially Good and Evil which was occasioned as I said by their
account of such Disgrace Contempt and ill usage from Rude People as is not to be compared with that which He underwent When we consider how our Blessed Saviour Forgave those who Thirsted after his Bloud and were never satisfied till they had put him to the most shameful and most cruel Death and not only Forgave them himself but Entreated his Father and that even in the midst of his Torments when his Spirit one would think should be most highly exasperated to forgive them too I say when we consider this how can it be difficult to disswade our selves from Meditating Revenge upon any Provocations whatsoever Surely we must needs be very powerfully inclined to forgive our Enemies When we call to mind how He exprest his love to his very Murderers even so as to design the greatest good to them by the means of that whereby they designed the greatest evil to him can we be averse to the bearing Good will to those who are ill affected towards us to the Blessing of those that Curse us and Praying for those that despightfully use us When we consider how this Mighty Person humbled himself even to the washing his Disciples Feet and declared that He came not to be ministred unto but to minister can We contemptible Wretches cherish the least spark of Pride in our Souls Can We despise the meanest of our Fellow-creatures or think our selves too Great or too Good to condescend to the lowest Offices of Love whereby we may serve our Brethren When we consider with what submission to the Divine Will our Blessed Lord indured the most exquisite Pains both of Soul and Body though He never deserved them by the least offence but was always most perfectly obedient to his Father can this be other than a most forcible motive to us who have Merited so ill at the Hands of God quietly to submit to his good Pleasure in Afflicting us whenas in so doing he doth always punish us far less than our iniquities deserve When we consider how well satisfied our Saviour was to be in poor low Circumstances and not to have so much as a Cottage of his own to put his Head in though he was Lord of all Is it imaginable that We should aspire at High and Great things and having Food and Raiment not be Content who are less than the least of all God's mercies And lastly Will not the Consideration of our Saviour's being such a Man of sorrows and so acquainted with griefs exceedingly deaden our desires after Sensual Pleasures Surely it must necessarily so do Thus we see how greatly exciting the Example of our Saviour is to the perfect Mortifying of those Lusts which are most strong and vigorous to the loathing and abominating those which are naturally very dear to us and to the most restless endeavours to get our Souls possessed of those Virtues and Graces which are most supernatural Thirdly Another very prevalent Motive is the Assurance our Lord hath given us that He will not take such Advantage of our Frailties and Weaknesses or Sins we fall into by mere surprize and want of due Watchfulness as to cast us off for them so long as we allow not our selves in any evil way and it is the principal design of our lives to be conformed in all things to the Laws of Righteousness There is a Prophecy concerning the Messiah Isaiah 42. 3. which our Saviour applieth to himself Matth. 12. 20. A bruised reed shall he not break and smoaking flax shall he not quench c. He will not crush under foot those who fall through weakness but whatsoever good he seeth in them he will still cherish My little children saith S. Iohn these things I write unto you that ye sin not But what if through the weakness of their Flesh they should at any time be overtaken is their state then desperate No by no means for it follows And if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous c. 1 Epist. 2. 1. As there are Sins unto Death so there are Sins not unto Death according to that of the same Apostle 1 Epist. 5. 17. All unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death Though all Unrighteousness be sin and the deserved wages of sin be Death yet such is the Goodness of God through Christ that all Sins shall not be unto Death but only Wilful and Presumptuous Sins And I add not these neither if not persevered in but throughly forsaken If we were liable to Eternal Ruine for such Faults as considering all our Circumstances in this state it is scarcely to be hoped we shall constantly avoid we should necessarily live in great Bondage through continual fear anxiety and disquieting thoughtfulness But on the other hand it conduceth exceedingly to the chearful pursuing our Great Work to be satisfied that it is not every Failure that shall endanger our final miscarrying And it is no small inducement to ingenuous Tempers to be so much the more solicitous to avoid Deliberate and Wilful sins because God through Christ is so ready to forgive and graciously pass by those that are not such Because he is pleased in his infinite Goodness to grant a pardon of course for these upon condition of their being in the general and habituals repented of And it is a great Motive also to such Tempers to be the more vigilant and watchful against all sins whatsoever against sins of daily incursion and infirmity as well as those which waste the Conscience And those are very ill natured and obdurate Sinners who can find in their hearts to Encourage themselves by this indulgence to sin the more freely Fourthly Another wonderful Encouragement to the careful use of the Means we are directed to for the subduing of our Lusts is our Saviours Mediation and Intercession There is one God and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Iesus His oblation was begun on Earth but perfected in Heaven where He appears in the presence of God for us Heb. 9. 24. Those Prayers we put up in His name for things Agreeable to the Divine Will with honest and sincere hearts our Saviour inforceth with his own Intercession He ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7. 25. And for this reason as the Apostle saith in the former part of that Verse He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him That is to give them a full and complete Deliverance from the Slavery of sin and all the evil Consequents thereof Now we know that we ask what is according to the Will of God when we pray for his Grace to Mortifie our Corruptions and to set us more and more Free from their Dominion This is the Will of God even our Sanctification c. 1 Thess. 4. 3. There are many Temporal good things which God in his infinite Wisdom may see not to be good for us but He knows that whatsoever hath a necessary influence into
our Soul's welfare and the making us partakers of his own image and likeness can by no Circumstances whatsoever become unfit to be bestowed on those that heartily and sincerely seek it And therefore we are assured that those prayers that are put up for such things with a true heart and full assurance of faith in his Power and Goodness are seconded in Heaven by our Blessed Lord And him the Father heareth always John 11. 42. We have shewed that our Saviour hath purchased a Rich supply of Grace to help our Weakness and that his Holy Spirit is promised to those that ask him who will not fail to assist them whilest they carefully exert that power they are already in possession of But the most Honest Souls have so frequent experience of Heaviness Dulness and Distractions in their Addresses to God that they would be in great danger of despairing of the Success of their Prayers but for this Consideration that they have a no Less Friend in Heaven than the Only Begotten Son of God who is most powerful with his Father and supplies all the Defects of their Prayers by his own Intercession in their behalf I need not say what a marvellous incouragement this is of our Faith and Hope in the Divine Goodness which are so necessary to Animate us and to put Spirit and Life into all our Endeavours And the Mediation and Intercession of our Blessed Saviour conduceth exceedingly to the overcoming those inslaving Passions of Fearfulness and Shame which arise from Guilt and do naturally cause a great Averseness in Sinners from going into the Presence of God and disable them when they are there to behave themselves as they ought before him S. Paul tells the Ephesians that In Christ Iesus they have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him That is through Christ's Mediation those Believing Gentiles of whose Calling he was discoursing as great Sinners as they had been even dead in Trespasses and Sins have liberty of Approach to God with Confidence of a kind Reception and a Gracious Acceptance And the Author to the Hebrews Chap. 10. 19 c. doth thus encourage Sincere Souls to draw near to God Having therefore Brethren boldness or Liberty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to enter into the holiest by the bloud of Iesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us in opposition to the dead shadows under the Law through the veil that is to say his Flesh Breaking through the veil of his Flesh being fain to die before he ascended into Heaven And having an High Priest over the House of God Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith Having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our Bodies washed with pure Water That is being sincerely resolved against all sins both of Heart and Life As none that had touched any unclean thing under the Law till the Priest had sprinkled them with pure Water had Liberty to enter into the Congregation Fifthly The Reward which our Saviour hath purchased for and promised to those that shall get free from the power of their Lusts is another Motive than which a more Powerful one is not to be imagined He hath promised that such shall be with him where he is That because he lives they shall live also Hath assured them that He is gone to Heaven before to prepare a place for them That He is entered thither as their Forerunner That they shall behold the Glory there which his Father hath given him and that they shall be sharers also with him in that Glory That they shall sit with Him upon his Throne Rev. 3. 21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me upon my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on his Throne That the Righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father Matth. 13. 43. That their dead Bodies also being raised again shall be fashioned like to his own most Glorious Body according to the Mighty working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself Phil. 3. 21. Of this Glory it is impossible we should speak much in this state worthily of it it far surpasseth our most Elevated Conâ—eptions and therefore our highest Expressions must needs fall excessively short of it It doth not yet appear what we shall be saith S. Iohn 1 Epist. 3. 2. only we know so much of the Heavenly Bliss as to be assured that it is astonishingly Great for as it follows this we know that when he appears we shall be like him like Him the infinitely Holy and Happy Being in his Holiness and Happiness for we shall see him as he is Which implieth such a clear distinct and vigorous knowledge of his most Glorious Perfections as will transform the Soul into His own Nature and fill it with His own Blessedness to the utmost extent of its capacity Could we now apprehend this Blessedness in any proportion to its transcendent Greatness and Excellency we should have no more Spirit left in us as it is said of the Queen of Sheba when she beheld the Magnificence of Solomons Court Indeed there is such an Account given us of the Happiness prepared for Good men that we should find it impossible to believe it but that God which cannot lye hath promised it and that it is the purchase of a most inestimable price the Bloud of his Eternally Begotten Son And we have so great Evidence of its being promised by his Father and purchased by Himself given us by our Blessed Lord that our own Hearts can't wish for greater nay such as we could not have asked any comparable to it might we have had our own choice of Evidence viz. His innumerable Miraculous works His Resurrection from the Dead His Ascension into Heaven And afterwards exactly according to his promise His sending the Holy Ghost We have not more Evidence that Iesus is the Son of God than we have that All his sincere Disciples shall live with him in unspeakable and Eternal Blessedness for we have the self same for both The same Arguments which have abundantly demonstrated the truth of the former Proposition do equally prove the latter for they depend mutually upon each other As S. Paul hath shewed in 1 Cor. 5. 13 14. If there be no Resurrection of the Dead then is Christ not risen And if Christ be not risen then is our Preaching vain and your Faith is also vain That is there will be no Resurrection of the Dead Now of what mighty force and efficacy are the exceeding great and precious promises of such a Glorious state as this to engage all the Powers of our Souls in the pursuance of that Holiness which is not only an indispensable Condition to precede the obtaining of it but like a necessary Qualification for it The Happiness which will naturally by proper Efficiency and necessary Consequence result from our
Attention in saying their Prayers and numbering them over is as much as is necessary And if we can believe that we need not mind our Prayers we have no reason to blame those of them who do not desire to understand them Nor yet their Church for enjoyning the saying them in a Language which the Generality of Her Children are ignorant of as if She designed in so doing to put an Affront upon S. Paul who hath taught us in the most express terms the quite contrary Doctrine in the 14 Chapter of the First to the Corinthians To conclude this Chapter Our Notion of Christian Liberty is so very far from befriending Popery that 't is not possible it should have a greater Enemy in that it so highly conduceth to the advancing of the true Spirit and Power of Religion and to the perfect ridding our Minds of those two as Great Friends to Popery as Pests to Religion and even Humane Society viz. Superstition and fanaticism I mean by these two a Base Unworthy Apprehension of the Deity and a Blind Irrational Heady Zeal If it be said after all that supposing the two Notions of Christian Liberty which we have now declared our Sense 〈◊〉 be never so false yet we are notwithstanding too confined in Our Notion in â—hat Christian Liberty doth not onely â—onsist in Freedom from the Dominion of 〈◊〉 and the other sad Consequents of it â—ut also in our Freedom as to all things â—fan Indifferent nature to or from which â—e are not determined as by any Divine 〈◊〉 neither by any Humane Law If this â—say be objected our Answer in one â—ord is this This is not Christian but â—his is Natural Liberty That of S. Paul â—ving been in All Ages and in refeâ—ence to all sorts of People as Great a Truth as it hath been since our Saviours â—ime and in reference to Christians viz. Where no Law is there is no Transgression CHAP. XIV An Answer to this Question Whether the Prescribing of Forms of Prayer for the Publick Worship of God be not an Encroachment upon Christian Liberty Wherein it is shewed that this is not a Stifling of the Spirit or Restraining the exercise of his Gift And what in Prayer is not as also what is the Gift of the Spirit Whereby is occasioned an Answer to another Question viz. Whether an Ability for Preaching be properly a Gift of the Spirit WHat hath been last discoursed gives me occasion to Enquire Whether the Imposing of a Liturgy or Forms of Prayer for the Publick Worship of God be not an Encroachment upon Christian Liberty I answer it is if that Principle taken up by very many among us be a true one viz. That this is a Stifling of the Spirit and a Restraining of the Exercise of one of his Gifts If this be so I say it can be no better than a very great invasion of Christian Liberty and a far greater than the mere obliging men to things Indifferent For as S. Paul saith 1 Cor. 12. 7. The Maniâ—estation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal and therefore for Christians to be limited in doing good by a Gift of the Spirit must needs be a robbing them of that Liberty which Christ in sending Him design'd to give them By the way it shall be no part of my Reply to say that onely the Ministers are here concerned not at all the People For although a Conceived Prayer of the Minister be of the nature of a prescribed Form to those that joyn with him as to the confining their Spirits yet the People must needs be sufferers by means of their Ministers being stinted in the exercise of a Gift of the Spirit since it was designed for their profit and therefore upon this account and moreover in regard of the Countenance they will thereby give to Authority in such a kind of Sacrilegious Usurpation of power over Ministers it cannot be justifiable in them to Attend willingly upon such Forms But in order to the undeceiving of those who are so tenacious of this conceit that a prescribed Liturgy is a hinderance to the Free Exercise of a Gift of the Spirit I must freely profess that I know of no Gifts of the Spirit which we have warrant from Scripture to believe are continued to the Church at this day besides those which S. Paul calls the Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. Where he saith The fruit of the Spirit is Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance These and the like Christian Graces are Gifts which the Spirit still bestows and therefore called Graces They are supernatural Gifts as no man by his mere Natural power can obtain them but only by the Spirit 's blessing of our Endeavours and to the sincere use of the Gospel-means the Spirit is always ready to give his blessing And the reason why in these latter Ages these blessed Gifts are bestowed upon no more Professors of Christianity than they are is because the generality of such are miserably wanting to themselves and to the Holy Spirit in refusing to do their part and to cooperate with Him Because they will not attend to the evidence the Spirit hath given to the Truth of the Gospel and therefore have too weak and ineffectual a belief thereof Because they will not consider the Doctrine of the Gospel they will not weigh well and lay to heart its Precepts with the infinitely powerful motives wherewith they are inforced Because they will not listen to the Spirits good motions and suggestions whereby he works in men to Will and begets in them good Resolutions but do truly â—â—ench the Spirit though that phrase is â—sed in reference to his miraculous Gifts and resist the Holy Ghost and because they will not make a believing Application to Him for his powerful Assistance I say it is upon these and such like accounts that the forementioned Gifts of the Spirit are so rare and that the generality of those who are honoured with the Title of Christians are so destitute of them as we see they are Nay multitudes are so befooled by the enemy of their Souls as to expect that the Spirit should do all in them without their doing any thing that He should make them Temperate Righteous Charitable Meek Humble and Submissive to God's Will Heavenly-minded and the like without their due attendance upon those Ordinances of the Word Sacrament and Prayer and serious Consideration and Watchfulness over themselves wherein alone we have ground to expect the powerful working of the Divine Grace in our Souls But I say though these Gifts are observable in so very few comparatively the account whereof I have briefly touched upon and shewed that 't is mens own fault that they are not very common yet we have no warrant from Scripture that I know of to call those which are much more common though they are by many so reputed Gifts of the Spirit notwithstanding the Prophecies and Promises of so
to the Will of God to have Granted or Denied to us as shall seem most agreeable to His infinite Wisdom the Good things of this present Life and hungering and thirsting desires after Righteousness after those Divine Dispositions and Qualifications which are necessary to our being made meet for the Kingdom of Heaven In such things as these doth consist the Soul and Spirit of Prayer These are the Absolutely necessary and Essential ingredients thereof But Fourthly As for Words they are but a circumstantial part of Prayer and no farther necessary than as they tend to the more quickening our Affections exciting our Desires inlivening our Sense of the forementioned Objects and keeping our Minds fixed and intent And in publick Prayer or Prayer with others they are necessary to enable others to joyn with us But the Omniscient God understands the sense of our Souls the temper of our Spirits and the desires of our Hearts though no words be used for the expressing of them And always measures our Prayers by those not at all by these I say not at all by Words because if they flow from an honest Heart and a good disposition of Mind they cannot be so faulty as to make a Prayer unacceptable And therefore it is the same thing to God whether a good Sense and good Desires be from time to time expressed by the same or by variety of Words and Phrases And he who is affected as he ought to be in the use of a Form who hath such Desires and such a Sense as he ought to have as thousands of good Christians have hath as much the true Spirit of Prayer and as much of it too as he can have who hath the most notable Faculty at varying his Expressions And he who hath this Faculty but wants that Sense and those good Dispositions is notwithstanding utterly destitute of the Spirit of Prayer But it is incomparably most fit that there should be a Liturgy or Forms prescribed for the publick Worship of God for Prayer and Praising of God in the Church and for the celebration of the Holy Sacraments with the other Offices because the publick Worship of God ought always to be performed with the greatest Gravity and Solemnity possible But such a performance of Divine Worship can never be secured where Ministers are wholly left to their own Liberty and permitted to put up all the Confessions Petitions and Thanksgivings of the Congregation and to perform all the Offices in their own Arbitrary and Extemporary Expressions For though some Ministers who take this Liberty may pray excellently well when their heads are clear and they are in a good Temper yet I doubt there are very few who have always that Presence of Mind that Composedness of Thoughts and Constancy of Temper as not to be forced sometimes to use many Tautologies and indecent expressions But however the Church is never like to be provided with such Ministers as shall be able for the most part of them to keep themselves from great confusion in their conceived Prayers from bald and absurd phrases and from Nauseating their Auditory with repetitions of the same things fulâ—om sayings or lamentable misapplications of Texts of Scripture through over-much modesty or other infelicities of Temper in some and in others through ignorance or weakness of Natural parts either slowness of Invention or want of Judgment And besides there is this necessity of having a Liturgy that without one there is no rational way of perswading strangers to hold Communion with us Except we can shew them something which is acknowledged by common Agreement for a Form and Method of Divine Worship we cannot satisfie them what publick Service we perform to God it will then be so various that is as not alike in all places so neither at all times in the same places But to complete my Answer to the Question in hand Fifthly The affecting us with a profound Sense of the Majesty and Glorious perfections of the God we pray to and of our own Vileness and Unworthiness And a Submissive frame of Mind to the Divine Will Ardent Breathings after more of the Divine Image and Likeness And a lively Faith in the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God which are as I said the Substantial and Essential parts of Prayer all these we heartily and thankfully acknowledge to be the Gifts of the Spirit We own them to be so otherwise than all other good things which are every of them expressions of the Divine Bounty and consequently Gifts of the Spirit as He is one of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity But we profess to owe them to the more special operations and influences of the Holy Ghost And for the working and encrease of these all good Christians do daily crave the Spirits assistance Now I need not say that to endeavour to put a restraint upon the exercise of such Gifts as these is a most wicked invasion and violation of our Christian Liberty according to our own Notion of it But what we have discoursed concerning Prayer gives me occasion to add something of Preaching too and to shew also how far an ability for that performance is to be ascribed to the Holy Spirit or called one of his Gifts And consequently we may from hence be satisfied whether a Preacher of the Gospel is inâ—â—tled to such a Liberty in reference to Preaching as may not be limited by Auâ—hority or upon no accounts taken wholâ— from him without putting an affront upon the Holy Spirit First It is out of doubt that no man 〈◊〉 hath the Gift of Preaching in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power in the sence that S. Paul and his fellow-Apostles had it For by the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power is meant those extraordinary Gifts of Speaking with Tongues Prophecy and Miracles accompanying their Preaching whereby they demonstrated the truth of the Doctrine preached by them And so Origen understands it in his Book against Celâ—us Secondly There is not the least ground to believe that any man hath now the Gift of Preaching by Inspiration or from the immediate Revelation of the Spirit Nor do any seriously pretend to it but wild Enthusiasts Brain-sick Melancholy and Hot-headed people who take their own Fancies and Whims and the products of an ungoverned imagination for Inspirations I say none but those who plainly discover themselves to be such do seriously pretend to this Gift because there have been and still are a company of Knaves in the World as is manifest by their actings who for the carrying on their corrupt and naughty designs pretend to that which they are conscious to themselves they have nothing of But sober and honest Preachers of the Gospel do profess to deliver nothing to their people but what they conceive to be long ago revealed But what they acknowledge they have with study and pains gathered from the Holy Scriptures either immediately or by plain consequence wherein are contained all things necessary
to be believed and practised by us in order to Salvation and which without any Additions are able to make us wise to Salvation as S. Paul assures us and are a complete Rule of Faith and Practice And that Preacher who shall offer to require his Auditors assent to any thing not delivered either in express terms or by plain consequence in the Writings of the Old or New Testament doth impudently impose upon their belief except he be able to work real Miracles for the convincing of them He takes more upon him than either the Apostles or our Saviour himself who did still appeal to the works the Supernatural works he did to attest the truth of the Doctrine he delivered I would such impudent imposers were onely to be found among the Romanists who are all so and the most impudent that ever appeared upon the stage of the World but alas they are too too common also among professed haters of Popery Thirdly And as to the sence of the more difficult places of Scripture no sober Preacher pretends to come to the knowledge thereof by the immediate illumination of the Spirit but such a one acknowledgeth he doth it in the general by the exercise of his Reason And particularly by considering the proper signification of Words and Phrases in the Original Languages by comparing Scripture with Scripture by searching into the Ancient Customs which give great light to a great number of Texts and without the knowledge of which they are not to be understood by enquiring after the judgment of those who lived nearest to the Times of the Apostles c. And after all they submit their Expositions of such Texts to the judgments of their Hearers I mean such of them as are capable of judging As for others Oportet discentes credere It becomes Learners to give credit to their Teachers And Credendum est peritis in suâ Arte. But Fourthly We do piously and by the Authority of Scripture believe that the Spirit is ready to assist us in our Reasonings and Enquiries and whatsoever particular good means we use for the understanding of Scripture when He is humbly and devoutly sought to by us and when without the least prejudice partiality ill design or sinister respect but for the best of Ends and from the pure love of Truth we make Enquiry Thus even Private Christians are assisted in the searches and enquiries which they are able to make For God hath promised that The Meek he will guide in judgment and the Meek he will teach his way Fifthly In composing also of profitable Discourses as we implore so we have the Divine Assistance but we see no ground to believe that we have it in any other manner than in other good works of what nature soever But as for the ready Faculty of Discoursing from a Pulpit and popular speaking to a Congregation we have no reason to believe it a Gift of the Spirit any more than the Lawyers strange readiness in pleading at the Bar. And a volubility of speech upon any subject whatsoever heat of Fancy and nimbleness of Wit and Invention are as much to be attributed to the Holy Spirit as such a Faculty And hence we may gather that a Preacher of the Gospel can plead no such Liberty as is wholly exempted from Restraints by Authority But one that is known to have never so good a Talent at Preaching may be forbidden the exercise of it till he hath submitted to a lawful Ordination such as was in use in the Churches of Christ for Fifteen hundred years together And when Ordained he may lawfully have bounds set him as to the places where he shall exercise his Ministry in publick and as to the times when And he may be forbidden to meddle with such Arguments as are above the reach of his Peoples Understandings or are not like to conduce to their Edification and much more to broach dangerous Doctrines that is such as are so in the judgment of his Governours And for his Disobedience and other Misdemeanours he is as liable to be suspended or totally deprived of his Ministerial Office as are any other Officers I do but touch upon and give light glances at these things because my present subject will not give me leave to discourse largely upon them which would be too great a digression from its proper business CHAP. XV. A Third False Notion of Christian Liberty viz. that which makes Liberty of Conscience a Branch of it Two things premised 1. That Conscience is not so sacred a thing as to be uncapable of being obliged by Humane Laws 2. That no man can properly be deprived of the true Liberty of his Conscience by any Power on Earth That what is contended for is more properly Liberty of Practice than of Conscience The Author's Opinion in reference to this Liberty delivered in Ten Propositions That whatsoever Liberty of this nature may be insisted on as our Right it is not Christian Liberty but Natural Liberty THirdly and Lastly I proceed to that Notion of Christian Liberty which makes Liberty of Conscience a Branch of it But before I deliver my Opinion about this weighty point which hath occasioned as great Feuds and sharp Contests as any whatsoever I shall premise two things First That Conscience is not so Sacred a thing as to be uncapable of being Obliged by Humane Laws Secondly That no man can properly be deprived of the true Liberty of his Conscience by any Power on Earth First That Conscience is not so Sacred a thing as to be uncapable of being Obliged by Humane Laws This is sufficiently clear from what is discoursed in the Thirteenth Chapter But it is said by many that God is the onely Lord of Conscience and therefore it is the highest presumption for Men to go about to bind it by their Laws It is the sole Prerogative of the Deity to search the Heart and try the Reins of the Children of men Conscience is too inward and secret a thing to fall under Mans cognizance and therefore what have any of our Fellow-Creatures to do to give Laws to our Consciences In Answer hereunto We have already seen what S. Paul's sense is about this matter that he saith We must needs be Subject or Obedient and that not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake So that the Apostle was far from thinking that the obligation of Humane Authority is founded in mere Prudence not at all in Conscience But no man in his Wits will say that the Laws of Men do oblige Conscience as the Laws of God do Those cannot do it immediately as these do but onely by virtue of the Divine Authority S. Paul saith Rom. 13. 1. Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers I think I shall not be over-critical in saying that is every Conscience for what follows proves the obligation of Conscience to subjection and is an Answer to the foresaid Objection against it viz. For there is no Power but