himself 2 Cor. 3. 1. Need we Epistles of Commendations to you or from you ver 2. Ye are our Epistles written in our hearts ver 3. Ye are manifestly declared the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with Inke but with the Spirit of the living God not on tables of stone but on hearts of flesh These are the Commendatory Letters which a true Apostle the true Church carry about with them these are the Commission by vertue of which they challenge their authority The Epistle that is the Gospell that is the Discovery of Christ shining thorow them into the hearts of men by the Spirit These are the onely life power authority discovery of the true Church the Manifestation of Christ and the Ministery of the Spirit to the hearts of men We reade Gal. 4. 25 26. of two Hierusalems one above the other below that now is subject to temporary appearances in this world or that now is whose time is now whose being and glory is of this world These are the Two Churches one in the outward forme the other in the Spirit To be subject to the Hierusalem below to the Church in the outward forme for the outward forme's sake is a bondage For that Church is in bondage with her children This Church is but our Mother-in-law The Hierusalem which is above the Church in the unity of the Spirit is the true Mother of us all That Church is our right Mistresse which is our true Mother This is the Mount Sion that cannot be toucht that is not obvious to sense or subject to a carnall discerning Here is the great Congregation of the first-borne the meeting of all good Spirits in this one Spirit Heb. 12. 18 22 23. To be subject to the authority of this Church is to be truly free For this Church is seene onely in the Spirit and in that Spirit justifies her selfe This Spirit is the seale of the living God upon her Thus the Authority of the Church is none or t is that of Christ and his Spirit in her 3. Master Miracles Divines distinguish between Mirandum and Miraculum a thing to be admired and a Miracle That is to be admired which is unusuall or unknowne which proceeds from some unwonted or undiscovered cause in nature That onely is a Miracle which is above Nature which transcends the course and power of Nature which hath the Divine Nature putting forth it selfe in the vigour of its abstracted Being You have Miracles described Mark 16. 20. They went forth and preached the Lord working with them and confirming the Word by signes following That onely is a Miracle or a signe from heaven for confirmation of the truth which hath the Lord Jesus working and appearing in it joyntly with some creature There is no way of confirming the Appearances of Christ but onely by the multiplying of those Appearances How then shall I know which is a Miracle I must have a Spirit large as the sand of the Sea that can put a Girdle about the whole Compasse of Nature in her widest extent I must fathom her in the utmost of her Power before I can say of any thing This is supernaturall this is a Miracle Or else he that saith He sees a Miracle must say he sees God as he is above all creatures comming downe in his owne likenesse into some particular Creature and making a change of it by that Discovery of himselfe in it The waters saw thee O God and were driven backward saith the Psalmist of the Miracles wrought in the passage of the Children of Israel out of Aegypt No man can discerne a Miracle 'till he discover God which can never be done but by the Eye of God in the Soul of man Jesus Christ is the Head-miracle For in him first the Face of God is seen in union with the Creature as in a glasse Each Miracle is the same Appearance over again in severall shapes as the same Soul which shines out in the Head shewing it self in the various Members and parts of the body Therefore is the Working of Miracles a Gift of the Spirit and the working of a Miracle is by the faith of Christ 1 Cor. 12. 9 10. Mat. 17. 20. But let us passe from Miracles to the Letter of the Scriptures 4. Master Letter of the Scriptures Nothing is to be said of these but reverendly They are to be set below the Spirit alone It is in comparison with this Spirit that themselves undervalue themselves and testifie of themselves these things 1. The Scriptures in the Letter are Dead But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we might serve him in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter Rom. 7. 6. The Law and the Letter are every where made of equall dignity power and extent Both as they are alone are old and dead The Scriptures thus taken signifie nothing except you bring some living Power or Principle to them to quicken them Lay them before a dead man and they are as dead as he 2. The Scriptures in the Letter are Killing 2 Cor. 3. 6. The Letter Killeth but the Spirit quickneth The Letter of the Scripture Kils two waies by confounding and condemning us It hath so much darknesse upon it so much difficulty in it it is subject to so many disputes to such variety of interpretations that it troubles and distracts our Vnderstanding making it able to see nothing to settle no where This indeed is the proper end and best effect of the Letter to put out quite all our Light that we may wait for a higher Light from Heaven which may restore the Letter without us and Reason within us as by a Regeneration Saint Paul saith I by the Law am dead to the Law Galat. 2. 19. Happy is he who can say in like manner I by the Letter am blind and dead to the Letter that the Spirit may shine thorow the Letter upon me and fulfill the law of the Letter in mee 3. The Letter of the Scripture is an Outward thing Rom. 2. 1. Saint Paul teacheth us that he is not a Jew who is one outwardly in the Letter but he that is one inwardly in the Spirit The Letter and the Spirit are opposed as inward and outward The Spirit is called a Sword Ephes 6. 17. The Scriptures are the Scabbard in which that Sword is laid up and out of which it is drawn The Spirit in the same place is called the Word of God This is the inward Word the Scriptures are the outward The Spirit is a Person the Scriptures are a Garment fitted to that Person and receiving their warmth from him before they can give any to us Yet every Principle and Power of falshood as well as truth can cloth it self with this Garment He is not a Jew that is one outwardly in the Letter Each Principle and Spirit makes the Scriptures appear to it selfe in its owne Likenesse Spirituall wickednesses
11. We read of abusers of themselves with mankind Idolaters Extortioners c. Such saith the Apostle were some of ye But ye are wash'd but ye are cleansed in the Holy Ghost and the name of the Lord Jesus You that have the most foule and loathsome souls heare this The name of Jesus Christ is the Image of his beauties Doe but cast your selves into the embraces of these beauties You are alwaies embraced by them Let but this Person spread his armes about you you shall immediately be changed and cleansed you shall shine forth fairer than any Creature by His comelinesse you shall be made a sit Spouse for God Doe you not feel the eyes of your understandings to open and take in a Glory Doe you not now learn that it is more honourable and more pleasant to be in a Prison on a Dunghill on a Sick-bed in a Grave with Jesus Christ than to be in a Palace without him Were it not a happinesse to be dead that we might be for ever with him My Lords I beseech you to receive a short sentence from the mouth of a Worme and lay it up in your hearts When the houre comes in which all your comforts shall forsake you it will be of inestimable Vertue and value to you It is this The Person of Christ satisfies the Father beautifies the blackest Soule glorifies the basest and bitterest condition This is the first Lesson the Lovelinesse of Jesus Christ 2. Lesson The Love of the Lord Jesus We read of Christ's sending his Spirit to convince the world of Sin Righteousnesse and Iudgment John 16. If the Lord would have you learn his Love he must send his Spirit into your hearts to convince you of Sin that you may know how much he bears with you of Wrath that you may know how much he bears for you of Righteousnesse that you may know how much he bestows on you He must send his Spirit into your Hearts to stretch them all waies to the utmost heighth depth breadth and length that they may take in His Love And yet then they will not take in the thousandth part Saint Paul praies for the Saints that they may know the heighth depth breadth and length and all this but as a preparation that they may know the Love of Christ and yet then he saith of it it passeth Knowledge Ephes 3. 18 19. I will give you severall places of Scripture to be as Hints to you of the Love of Christ and His Teachings of it in the Soule Revel 1. 5. Who that is Jesus Christ hath loved us and wash'd us in his bloud Acts 9. 4. Jesus Christ complains from Heaven Saul Saul why persecutest thou me John 17. 1. Our blessed Saviour praies to his Father for his Disciples that that Love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them and I in them Come you that yet wallow in your Lusts and think nothing so sweet as they are to you Come you that Welter in despair as in your bloud and think nothing can be sweet to you Learn the love of the Lord Jesus as He teacheth it When thou hast polluted thy self with the greatest Vncleannesse then feel the drops of thy Saviours bloud trickling apace from his Wounds down upon thy Bosome to Wash off that Staine then heare the Voice of thy Saviour sweetly speaking forth these words in thy Spirit Thus I die for thee yet thus thou Killest me all the day long Will not these words break your hearts and kill your Lusts When you are at the lowest ebbe of grace or comfort when your feet stick in the myre of clay then look upward see Jesus Christ in Heaven heare him in the midst of all his joyes speaking to his Father concerning thee after this manner O my father why doest thou still persecute me with thy displeasure My joy is not full while this man's sins and sorrows are upon him I suffer shame fear want woe in him Here shew that love which thou bearest to me on this poor soule When you seem to your self most neglected of God and man most afflicted from both then look inward see Jesus Christ in your own Spirits hear him thus comforting thee Yet have I my Heaven here in thee Yet hast thou thy Heaven thy Righteousnes thy Joy thy Jesus hidden in the midst of thee ready to be made manifest upon thee in their own Season Doe not your Souls pant within you after this Jesus now that you hear so much of his Love Now let each one say Depart from me ye fruitless Delights ye causlesse Despairs For now I know that the love of the Lord Jesus towards me excells all things that ever were His loving kindnesse is sweeter than life it self Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life said the Devill But skin lusts life and all will he give for this love that hath once had any tast of it All my contents are in this and in thee ô Jesus These are the two principall and most difficult Lessons in the school of Christ There are many other besides these of which I will cull out six 1. Loath the World and live in Heaven Christ teacheth us to seek a City not of this Creation whose Builder Building and chief Inhabitant is God He teacheth us to find this new Hierusalem which is above us within us and there to dwell He discovers this City with its Citizens in our Spirits and draws us into it 2. Hate Sin and be Holy Jesus Christ teacheth with a tongue of Fire in the Heart of man which melts and makes new which as it teacheth toucheth takes hold consumes the drosse and refines the gold 3. Cast off your selves and abide in Jesus Christ The teachings of Christ run much upon two Creations the one Old the other New and a dying to the one that we may Live in the other Take away the Earth and Heaven is every where Take away the old appearance of the Creature and Christ with God appears One Appearance is the Garment spotted with the Flesh the other is the White Rayment 4. Have a beautifull Conversation among men The rule of Christ is that good men should shine as Lights in the world Light is clear the same in every posture and motion It enlightens and cheers It draws and directs It is of the same stuffe and appearance with Heaven 5. Be a Servant to all in Humility Learn of me for I am lowly saith Christ Mat. 11. 29. The Son of man came not to be served but to serve Mat. 20. 28. He is likest to the most High that can descend lowest to serve and please others in Christ 6. Be a Father to all in Charity This is a Mystery of sweetnesse which the Lord Jesus infuseth into the Soules of his Hearers to comprehend all things in one Spirit with themselves by being themselves comprehended in one Spirit with God to look upon all things as their owne and the out-goings of
our selves our Saviour Shall not the wrath of the one and the sufferings of the other make us sore amazed and exceedingly heavy unto death even the death of all our fleshly delights It is witnessed of Christ 1 Pet. 3. 18. He was put to death according to the flesh and quickned in the spirit S. Paul teacheth us 1 Cor. 5. 5. that after the same example every Humiliation should be for the destruction of the flesh and the saving of the Spirit Who calls himselfe a Christian and yet can forbeare in these times to sigh forth such language as this Lord Jesus thou art our Master we will learne of thee to die with thee Make thou these Calamities which our eyes see our eares heare our hearts feele and feare on every side of us to be our Crosses set up by thy Crosse on thy right hand like that of the good Thiefe We have had power pompe pleasures after the flesh But now let all these languish on these Crosses till they bow downe the head and we give up the Ghost of all earthly strength and hope Thus we will dye and our death shall be sweet unto us as the Spring of a better and more blessed life My soule breathe thou forth thy griefes and feares into the bosome of thy JESUS after this manner My dearest Lord All these miseries round about me shall be thy Crosse to me Here will I lay me downe on this Crosse in thine armes who hast been crucified upon it before me This shall be my rest in the day of trouble For here will I lay me downe and dye for ever to the world that I may rise againe in thy bosome to a new hope to sweeter and surer Joyes But for what shall we mourne We reade in the Gospel of a people that said of Christ We will not have this man to rule over us For this the Lord Jesus determines to go up and slay them Have not we refused the Lord Jesus for a Master to rule and guide us Is it not for this that he hath made these slaughters upon us Let us try our selves concerning these foure Masters Out Humour Our Lusts Our Passions The Examples of men 1. Our Humour God complaines Esay 52. 3. My people have sold themselves for nought How often have we sold our selves our soules our Saviour for nought for a Humour Let us thinke and weepe that many a time the Lord Jesus hath dropt upon our soules the precious discourses of life peace and immortality like the dew from the wombe of the morning that is from the eternall Fountaines of light and truth Yet we have cast it off without consideration meerly because our Humour lay that way to be carelesse of these things O stiffe-neckt spirits Jesus Christ hath come to us eating and drinking that is filling himselfe with immortall strength and truths with divine sweetnesse and joyes that he might flow forth on us and feed us with the same bread and wine of Heaven O hard-hearted Spirits He who is the Beloved of God the Beauty of the Godhead comes to us neither eating nor drinking but weeping and dying testifying the greatnesse of his love by the greatnesse of his sufferings teaching us to hide our selves from griefes and death in his wounds and through them to passe into Paradise Yet we suffer all this to run waste making no entrance into our eares or hearts and that for a weak empty Humour for an inclination without reason because we are listlesse to such things and have no pleasure in them But now let us fall downe before Jesus Christ and say Lord thou art the Wisdome of the Father None Teacheth like thee Thy love and wisdome have overcome me Many Masters many Hamours have reign'd over me besides thee But I bring my stiffe neck to thee with a halter upon it till thou please to take it off and put on thy yoke which is light and easie I bring my hard heart to thee and lay it broken at thy feet till thou gatherest it into thy breast and make it whole there 2. Our lusts These are our second Masters Psal 12. 13. God saith of Israel I gave them up to their owne hearts lusts And then afterwards O that my people would have heard my voice Lusts lead us away from Jesus Christ and suffer us not to heare his voice Let us try our selves concerning this thing What in all the course of our life hath put us on the frequentest or chiefest actions of our life Have the Spirituall appearances of Jesus Christ within us conspiring with his Word before us been the Oracle with which we have consulted Or have our lusts prompted us and thrust us on Have our eyes been upon the Eye of Christ to guide us or on some Wedge of gold or the Babylonish garment of some power office or honour What is it in the great action of this Reformation that hath put us to travaile so far about by the way of the Wildernesse of a Warre to meet with so many fiery Serpents What is it which now hath cast us into this feare that we shall waste a weary life and drop our Carkasses in this Wildernesse before we see the Land of Rest Have we not loath'd Manna and lusted after Quails We have found no Savour or Relish in the discoveries of Beauty Sweetnesse Rest in the Spirit and Person of our blessed Saviour But have been longing for the Bravery Ease and pleasures of the Flesh Doe we thus requite Jesus Christ He hath spared no losse trouble or paine to make his way to us to make known Himself his Father and the Glory of Heaven to us Yet now every motion of Ambition Vanity Covetousnesse or foule Desire hath more power to perswade with us than the Life and Death of Jesus Christ than all his Words Teares and Blood Let our Saviour speak by his Providence as loud as Thunder let him speak by his Promises with the tongue of an Angell to our eares and affections let him speak by the power of his Spirit with the voice of God to our Spirits we cannot heare him But let a Lust whisper onely from out of the ground of our sensuall part we heare it with ease and speed Shall we not be ashamed and grieved for these things 3. Our passions You have an admonition from the Apostle Ephes 4. 27. Let not the Sun goe downe upon your wrath To that he addes ver 28. Neither give place to the Devill Passions are Devils come up into our spirits with the fire of hell burning hot upon them and flaming from them These are uncleane Spirits which for the most part haunt the high places of Power and the desolate places of Warre When Passions are loud God himselfe cannot be heard by the best men as we see in the example of Jonah What griefe is it to thinke that we should refuse the Prince of Peace for a Counsellour when we take our passions in his stead that Jesus Christ
can set themselves up in the highest places of Scripture 4. The Scriptures in the Letter are but a Shadow The Law having a Shadow of good things to come but not the very Image it self Hebr. 10. 1. I have already said that the Law and the Letter are much one thing The Person of Jesus Christ in the Spirit is the Image it self of all good things The Scriptures are the Shadow which this Image casts from it self in the Light of the Spirit All creatures are Shadows of those good things which are in God and Christ The Scriptures are the largest the exactest the nearest the best Shadow and such a one as is rightly seen only in the Eternall light of Christ It vanishes into a confused spot when he withdraws and is clear again when he appears Saint Paul puts Timothy in mind of studying the Scriptures but then lest he should mistake them he gives him this Vniversall Caution 2 Tim. 3. 19. Knowing that every Scripture is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given by inspiration of God Vnhappy is he that trusts himself to any thing as Scripture any further than it carries a Divine inspiration the breathings of God or his Spirit along with it That is Scripture which is the Word of God and that the Word which is in union with the immortall Word This Word hath the words of everlasting life John 6. 68. I will conclude this particular head of the Scriptures with an Answer to an Objection which the Papists make against us So shall we fall upon the last Master the Spirit Object They say we run in a Circle while we make not the Church the ground of our belief For we pretend to Know all things by the Scriptures But how the Scriptures by the Spirit And how the Spirit by the Scriptures Thus we run round Answ But if a man say he converseth with my body by my soule and with my soule by my body doth he run in a circle or speak vainly No for both are true in a distinct and proper sense The Body is the appropriate and immediate Instrument of the Soule the Soule is the Breath that fills that Instrument and gives it a distinct sound The Spirit quickneth As the Humane nature to the Divinity of Christ so the Scriptures are a kind of Incarnation or as a Body to the Holy Ghost which alone is their proper Soule The Scriptures are the materiall object of our Faith the Spirit the formall both the ultimate the last object in their kind The Truths which I am to believe lie in Scripture as Colours in the wall or in a Picture The Spirit is as the Light I see the coloured wall by the Light for that enlightens it actuates its shape and colours brings them unites them to my eye enlightning and actuating that also I see the Light by the Wall for it reflects and directs it self from that to my eye So the Spirit and the Scriptures as Light and Colours on a Picture are mutually seen in and by one another without any Maze or endlesse Circle Thy Word is a Light to my feet and a Lanthorn to my paths saith David Psal 119. The Eternall Word in the Written Word is the Light in the Lanthorne The Scriptures are my Spectacles though the Spirit of Christ be my Light or my Eye and his Person the Word which I read My God! Let me not want thee in the Humanity while I am a Creature Blessed Spirit let me enjoy thee in the Scriptures while I am in the flesh 5. Master the Spirit This is the Christ the true Master 1 Tim. 3. 13. Great is the mystery of godlinesse God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit The Spirit is God and Christ in their Divine appearance as they are invisible to carnall eyes pure simple perfect in one All Flesh is a Manifestation of God and each Manifestation which is not the Substance it self is but Flesh The Spirit that is the Spirituall appearance of God in Christ tries and justifies or condemns all Appearances of Truth or Falshood This is the onely Judge at whose Bar every Manifestation of God in the flesh receives its Justification even the Spirit The Lord Jesus is that Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 17. 1 John 5. 6. The Spirit is Truth that is the Highest Truth Reason saith There must be One there can be only One first and last Truth from which all Truths primitively derive themselves into which they all ultimately resolve themselves for certainty and evidence Reason saith This Truth can be no other than the Highest of all the only true God as he is in his own Spirit and Spirituall appearance Thus the Spirit which is above Reason and can reveal it self at pleasure without Reason is witnest to by Reason This Spirit is the most high God This God is our Jesus as he stoops into our Natures as he puts forth himself in our Persons to become the Fountaine the Glasse of truth love life joy within us This is He who calls to our fluttering wandring Spirits and points them to himself and saith Here shall be your Rest build your nests on this Rock His Name is I am that I am I am Certainty I am Truth All other things are so far certain and true as they have a Certainty and Truth in him being comprehended in his Appearance or carrying forth his Appearance in themselves Come then all that hunger and thirst after Truth sit downe at the feet of this Master as Mary did There are many Objections made against these inward Teachings of Christ by the Evidence of the Spirit 1. Object How shall I know this Spirit Answ If you ask me how you shall see other things I answer by the Light But if you ask me how you shall see the Light I have nothing to say but the same thing again by the Light That which makes manifest is Light The Light comprehends the object in it self flowes with it into my eye unites it self to my eye informs it immediately with it self and with all shapes and colours in it self Thus if you ask me how you shall know Divine things I answer by the Spirit But you reply how shall I know the Spirit Still I answer by the Spirit 'T is the rule of School-Divines when you come to objectum quo sistendum est when you come to the first Principle of seeing or knowing you must stop there For that discerns and judges all but is discern'd and judg'd only by it self Saint Paul joynes them two a Spirit of Revelation and the opening the eyes of our understanding Ephes 1. 17 18. 2. Object But how can this be seeing my Soule knows not this Spirit hath no sense of it no suitablenesse to it Answ Saint John satisfies you in this doubt 1 Joh. 5. 20. The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true Looke upward to the Mountaine of the Godhead from whence Salvation comes Jesus Christ
of colours It must have pleni-potency an all-sufficiency a Divinity of certainty and clearnesse in and of it self No other thing can ever make the soul fully sure without trembling or wavering A man must be of necessity double-minded and like a wave of the Sea as Saint James speaks Iames 1. till he come to the Corner stone the Bottom reason of truth because the whole Building of truth stands on this That only is a Demonstrating Principle an assuring a quieting truth which is so first of all that there lies no appeale from it to any it self being the Fountain which gives testimony to all truths but receives or needs a testimony from none 2. Immediate truths These are such as have an immediate Vnion with the Soul that there may be no dispute about their Evidence or diminution or danger of corruption by any second hand Saint Paul calls it a Demonstration of power when the first Light the first Truths communicate themselves nakedly to the naked soule of man both being uncloth'd of any intervening representations or reports Thus the Soul receives the Light of truth in the dignity of its strength in the excellenty of its might as Iacob speaks of his First-born The power of Truth is the first and highest Appearance which is proper perfect substantiall All inferiour appearances are Truth in its weakness and shadowy God made man and woman One that they might have a Holy Seed a Sead of God in the Hebrew Malac. 2. 15. The first Truth as the Man the Soule as the Woman must be espoused and married joyn'd without a Deputy or a Third they must be immediately entirely One that they may have a Seed of God a race of Truths cleer and Sure having the full brightnesse of a Demonstration shining in their faces If any thing come between your understanding or belief and the first Truths you doe not trust to their Testimony but to the report of some other thing concerning them The men of Samaria said to the Woman Now we believe not because of thy saying For we have heard Him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world Iohn 4. 42. If thy Soul will have any one truth in the demonstration of power it must be able to say to the Principle of Truth the highest Truth Now I believe not because of any other testimony proof or evidence For I have heard and seen and handled thee in my self and so I know that thou art indeed in substance and power the anointing Truth the only Light and Anointing of all truths 2. Quest What is the Spirit Answ The Spirit is a name of essence or subsistence in God of the divine Nature or one of the three divine Persons I wil speak of it now as it signifies the essence or nature of God God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth Iohn 4. 24. The Spirit is God unveil'd and shining out in his true Appearance above all the shadows types and Images of him in the Creatures The Flesh profits not but the Spirit quickneth Ioh. 6. 63. Thus our Saviour opposeth the Created and Uncreated part of things in his owne Person under the names of Flests and Spirit Divines say that every Creature even the highest Aâ—â—el hath something of materiality darknesse grosnesse composition carnality and so it is Flesh compared with God who only is a Spirit as the Spirit is a name of unity simplicity purity The Spirit then is God in the simplicity of his own Person abstracted from all mixture or composition with the Creature 3. Quest What is the Demonstration of the Spirit God in his Spirituall appearance to the Soul is the first Truth For He is above All. He is the Immediate Truth For he alone is most intimate with all things Nothing can unite it selfe to the Soul so inwardly so immediately as God For all things are by Him This is the onely Demonstration of every of any Truth the Spirituall appearance of God in the Soul holding forth that Truth in his own Light When Saint Paul had spoken of the Demonstration of the Spirit he adds that your faith might be not in the Wisdome of men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2. 5. The Demonstration of the Spirit is above nature reason and all Principles of Wisdome or Truth in any Creature It is the power of God as God bringing forth the discovery of himself and all Truths as particular discoveries in that Vniversall One like branches in the stock of a tree or beames in the body of the Sun In thy light shall we see light Psal 36. 9. In the manifestation of God within us shall we see the manifestation of each Truth You are Light in the Lord Ephes 5. 8. Every Person every appearance is Light hath a power of evidencing and manifesting it self so far only as it is in the Light of God 4. Quest How is the Demonstration of the Spirit appropriated to Jesus Christ Answ Saint Paul shall answer this question Acts 3. 3. Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which we now see The Spirituall manifestation of God is the onely distinguishing character the demonstration of every spirituall truth This appearance is the Promise the great and last promise of the Father the great and last expectation of all the Saints The Lord Jesus received this manifestation of God in the Person of the Holy Ghost immediately We all receive it or wait for it in the Person of Jesus Christ by His Mediation This Spirit or this Spirituall shining out of the divine Majesty is the onely Seale of truth Ephes 1. 13. Ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise in the former part of the Verse were these words after that ye received the word of truth They were sealed that is the truth of the Gospel was sealed in and to and on them by the Seale of the Spirit which is the Ingraving of the first Truth upon each truth or heart The Lord Jesus is the Angel that hath this Seale of the living God in his hand Revel 7. 2. For He himself is first sealed with it and all other Members of this Truth or Disciples of this Master are sealed by and in Him Him hath the Father sealed Joh. 6. 27. The Father is the Sealer primitively by power and authority The Son as he is the second Person in the Trinity is the Image which the Father sets on when he seals Heb. 1. 3. the expresse Image of his Person the Sealing Image The Holy Spirit is the Impression of this Image in and by the Father In this sense the Holy Ghost is said to be received as the Wax receives Impression of the Image in sealing So he is called the Sealing wherewith we are sealed in that fore-quoted place of the Ephesians The Person of the Lord Jesus as he is Mediatour God-man is the Sealer by place and