can get himself in those three things Saints under the Law in three respects out from it then he is wholy clear The Saints are under it partly either In respect of their Persons Actions Afflictions For their persons that is we do conceive that we do 1. As to their persons deal with God in some measure according to his law we think that God doth deal with us according to his law and that we deal with God in some measure according to his law Whereas we should conceive that God doth not look on me or speak to me or deal with me at all according to the law Christ having fulfilled it and I being dead to it but only in reference to grace so I deal with God as he is my Father as he is revealed to me in grace in the Doctrine of the Gospel so that if we could conceive that our persons are fully justified that all my weaknesses thoughout the day or week or year do not make me according to his Law one jot more unjust nor all my good doth not make me more just for Christ Jesus his Death and Resurrection doth that wholly therefore my person for ever is freed from the power of the Law and if I sin grace may call me to account for it and whip and scourge me with his Ferula but for the Law what have I to do with that what have I to do with a husband that is dead and buried what have I to do with the Covenant of works that Jesus Christ hath fulfilled and cancelled Therefore get your persons clear of the Law for that is it that evidenceth many times that you are not because when you sin against God then there ariseth storms within you that were once without you on Mount Sinai that blackness and darkness then you fear you are hypocrites then you finde wrath in your consciences as oft as you finde wrath that is the work of the Law for the Law worketh wrath it shews clearly that your persons are not quite freed from the Law for though there should be sorrow and more kindly and abundant sorrow then ever you felt before and care and other things yet even that wrath and horror and hardness of heart and risings of spirit against God will testifie that in some measure your persons are under the Law Ye are not under the Law Secondly Your actions I say should not be under 2 In respect of their actions the Law for as one saith as our persons are justified fully by Christ so are our actions that is whatsoever action I do or commit however that action may not be pleasing to God according to Grace or the Gospel it may not be an acceptable sacrifice as all our actions should be yet notwithstanding we should not conceive that our actions are to be squared and measured according to the rule and life of the Law which is the Covenant of works As for Instance when a man is under the Law whose actions are under the Law he labors all the day long to please God to serve and obey him but if he fail but once or twice that day in his duty there is some confusion whispered in his soul that all is lost there is more trouble for that one failing then he hath comfort for all that he hath done that day that is just the Law for the Law saith if he fail in one he is guilty of all Now if a man be under grace he rejoyceth in his sincere indeavor to honor God and he rejoyceth in the passages of that day that he hath had communion with God and where there is weakness there would be a sweet clear mourning for it in reference to God as a Father and not to have the heart estranged from God and straitned Our actions in a great measure are under the Law Our actions are freed from the Law in this life but we know not our freedom They are freed thus all arise either from flesh or spirit for those are the two beginnings the two first beeings of all Now those of the flesh for a Christian may do an action that is purely flesh that hath no good in it then that is a sin Christ Jesus hath done it away Now if it be an action that ariseth from his holy Spirit that flows from the principle of Iesus Christ that is in him the Lord accepts of it that is done already if he were able to do it yet it comes too late but onely he doth it as the honest upright indeavor of a loving childe to a dear father So could we measure our actions according to that rule our lives would be more holy and more sweet and comfortable Thirdly our afflictions or sufferings it were well 3 Relating to their afflictions if we could get out from under the lash of the Law in all these there we are deeply under it as soon as ever we are whipped then we say God hath found me out and it is true God may whip me for it because I will not take notice of it though God will not hide his countenance and his smiles from his childe one jot further then he must needs do it for fear of cockering him therefore I know if God frown and hide his face that God loves me and he would shew it but I have a base heart that at such times as that would like some sin and be wanton otherwise God hath no delight to hide his face a moment Now all my afflictions and sufferings I am not to look on them under the Law that is as though God in reference to these had a purpose to satisfie himself and his vengeance and to let his wrath fall upon me that is clearly to frustrate the death of Christ but I am to look on that as fully satisfied and done by Christ and God is more faithful then to be paid twice but I am to look upon all my afflictions as proceeding from the love of a dear father and I can take notice of many sins that displease him and he hath many Gospel-ends to do me good therefore in afflictions I admit not one hard thought of God but love him more for his favor in the Gospel If we see afflictions under grace aright then afflictions do exceedingly kindle love to God and increase our communion with him and whereas they make us run from God they would make us run to him and delight in him but we are under the Law and that makes our persons and actions and afflictions to be a burthen O that the Lord would help us to get clear of it that every one would labour to get his spirit his person his actions and his corrections and all clear of that and dead to that But ye are under grace Grace in this place as I conceive hath a very large extent and is not taken onely for that favor of God as it is usually in Scripture but there is something meant by it that shall
towards it the heart lyes gaping and is dead Let any lust or sin come any temptation though it be never so poor and feeble there is no resistance there is an inrode into the soul without any opposition let pride or frowardness or filthiness or covetousness and worldliness come there is nothing to resist it because the life of the soul is away which is the spirit of God And is not this an excellent thing then for a man to have the spirit of God dwelling in him that when good is proposed to him the spirit may as it were switch him It is a homely expression but I have found it by experience As a jade with a good switch is set on to the journey or to his businesse so when the soul of a man hath somewhat within to switch him to cause him to close with good things to lay hold on them to attempt them at least Whereas when the spirit is away there is no stirring the soul is as flat and as dead as water in a stinking ditch This is the excellency of the spirit Therefore you that have it prize it There are some that if they had it again as once they had they would prize it and praise God for it and would now give a world for it Therefore you that have these stirrings of the spirit in you to make you close with good and to resist evil in some measure bless God and praise his name for it That is the thing I drive at that you may see the use and worth and excellency of the Spirit of God in your souls When the Spirit of God is away from the soul all the seals of Gods Love and the signs of his Favor they are cut off at one dash as it were I mean thus when the Spirit of God dwels in the soul you could read the love of God in every Ordinance you could see it in every Grace and in every Promise in the Word of God in every thing and you could see one while your election with joy and another while Gods everlasting love with joy and another while the death of Christ and another while your union with him another while your Redemption and Reconciliation and Gods Love sealed in all these Nay in every creature you could taste the Love of God in your cloathes and your meat and every thing But let the Spirit of God be gone and all these are gone Take all Promises and Mercies and Sacraments they seal not one spark of the Love of God but they are all dead speechless things that signifie and speak no comfort at the best and it may be horror that a man may read I had almost said his Reprobation in that which a few hours before he could have read his election in and those Scriptures all along that he could sweetly have seen the Will of God in and could say that which neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor hath entred into the hart of man that I have seen he can shut his Bible and say and almost swear that he understands not one tittle in it That soul that when he had the Spirit could spring with joy unspeakable and full of glory when he came before the Lord to call upon him either in publick or in private and could pour his soul into his fathers bosom that could have prayed a whole year if he had had time and strength to continue he is not able now to speak one word to the Lord. And more then so he is not now deprived only of all light of all Knowledg of all assurance of all comfort of all strength either to do good or to resist evil but there is positive horror in the heart positive fear and terror and darkness a bondage to unbelief seizing upon him That as our Lord saith The Spirit is like winde that no man knows whence it comes or whither it goes So he feels a misery in his soul that he knows not whence it comes or where it will end As it was said of the Powder plot the Powder Treason that there should be a blow given that none should know whence it was so he sees a blow given to his soul and the life of it and all that is good and excellent in it and he knows not whence it is he can say that his soul is no other then a plain hell for there is no positive evil in hell but it is there and there is no privative evil no evil of deprivation of any thing that is good but he feels it there so that in all our Religion our Graces and Duties and Assurances and Evidences the Spirit of Iesus Christ is the life of all Therefore no wonder that David who was a Type of a Gospel Christian should say Create in me O Lord a new heart andrenew and restore thy holy Spirit as if he had said since thy holy Spirit went away there is an annihilation all that is in me is annihilated He doth not say mend and repair but create I see not so much as a stump of Grace a root or a habit or any thing but all is pulled up and thou must create in me a right spirit Therefore learn that the life of all your Comfort and Assurance and Profession and Graces and Duties and all is the Spirit of God It is but the turning of Gods hand to say Come back my holy Spirit from such a soul leave him but one three hours and then he will be according as I have told you therefore saith the Apostle we are not debtors to the flesh but to the Spirit If ever you finde comfort in an Ordinance you owe thanks to the Spirit if ever you have a little assurance of Gods love whom will ye thank for it Ye are no debtors to the flesh he doth not mean you are not debtors to sin there is no man but he knows that he owes nothing to sin but saith he not to the flesh that is principally to any thing that is not the Spirit to fleshly wisdom to natural parts to our best abilities and endeavours If ever you have gotten any thing by Sabbaths or Sermons or the company of the Saints it was not from your own wisdom or pains but you are debtors to the Spirit of God it is the Spirit that wrought it therefore prize the Spirit of God you that have it O if you could but borrow the eyes of poor souls that had it once and have it not O how happy creatures would you think you are notwithstanding all outward miseries because Jesus Christ by his holy Spirit dwels in your hearts but we know not the worth of it till we want it and then we can prize it and would give a world for it And then labor to please the blessed Spirit take heed of provoking and grieving of him the Spirit is a more dainty Spirit then you are aware of you may easily vex and grieve and fret it do not dally with sin Christians
make a dallying with sin which is altogether unworthy of the Gospel of Iesus Christ one dallies and flickers like the Fly about the Candle with one last one while and another with another and still the Spirit is grieved and then you know where you are You little think when you are dallying and trifling with lusts and do not set forth the strength of Christ in you against them little do you think what bitter fruit you have along with it It may leave you so low that you know not whether ever it will come again and there is the misery of all miseries how do I know but that God hath cast me off and left me and will never see my soul more because when I was tempted to pride and frowardness or worldliness I gave way and did basely and spake unworthily Have a care of this this is the will of God and it is for your warning that since God hath made you happy you would take heed that you make not your selves miserable but that you would be careful not to grieve the blessed Spirit whereby you are sealed and comforted Sin is like that Italian Fig that Physitians say how true I know not they can poyson a man in a Fig and take the poyson and it shall not work in a moneth or in two moneths after So a poor Christian sins and breaks into frowardness to raile against his brother and backbite and yet he findes the comfort of the Spirit fresh but it may be a week or a fortnight after when he goes to shake himself as Sampsom when he went against the Philistins when he hath sinned and thinks to go with the same boldness to God in prayer he finds his strength weakned and the Spirit gone and then all is gone his Life and Prayers and Seals and Comforts and Evidences and Assurance and there is nothing but a careass left made up of flesh And whatsoever is born of flesh is flesh A man would think it were a ridiculous phrase we observe it not flesh is abominable to God Flesh what is that I have lately seen a dead horse one of the ugliests sights that ever I saw it was full of huge monstrous Vermin abominable that I cannot fitly speak of it and I wondered why it should be so and I concluded because it was flesh when the flesh was gone there would be none of that stink and filth left so in your souls and minde there is a piece of flesh for every Vermin and the devil may come with seven spirits worse and may say there is such a soul there was the Spirit but now there is nothing but flesh come fellow devils Therefore beware of grieving the Spirit it is easily grieved It is not the greatness of our sins that grieves the Spirit but the baseness of our hearts in sinning in little things it may be in wearing Apparel or Lace or Open breasts in trifling things with a sinful disposition that which we account a trifling lust may grieve the Spirit Therefore I say you that have it prise the Spirit and you that have it not labor to have it and endeavor to please and to entertain the Spirit for the Spirit and Christ are the same as it were they are taken one for another Christ dwels in us and the Spirit dwels in us and saith the Spouse in the Canticles I will take my beloved and bring him to my mothers Chamber and let none call my beloved or wake him till he please Study to give all contentment to the Spirit of God cross him not thwart him not vex him not but entertain him for he is your life and you are nothing but flesh when he is gone It may be God hath other designs in it otherwise when God takes away his Spirit and leaves my soul in desertion if I did not think God had a design in it for his own glory and my good I should utterly sink Therefore God sometimes takes away his Spirit to the end that we may know the worth of the Spirit how to prize it and to pitty people that have it not and to please it with more carefulness if God ever give it us again Expositions and Observations on 2 COR. 11. 3. But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your mindes should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ I Shall not expound it but only out of the presumption I have of your goodness and the love of God in you that you will hear a spirituall word in any shape therefore though brokenly and confusedly I would take occasion from these words to exhort you to stick to the simplicitie of the Gospell my meaning is this that The Gospell is a far more simple and plaine thing then most people conceive it to be Truly beloved I think that our growing now we The simplicity of the Gospel are come out of Antichrist is not to grow in higher notions and speculations of things but to grow more simple in the worship of God We shall be less curious a great deal when Christ shall set up his worship then when Antichrist set it up Our growing in knowledg is not as honest Doctor Preston saith to know new things so much as to know old things in a new manner The Gospel is a plain simple thing There are these three reasons I shall give you Argued from three reasons 1. The matter of it First I finde that the matter of the Gospel is a plaine simple thing not of ens and non ens and notions that none can apprehend them as people every where discourse above the Moon I understand not their words no not grammatically not in the letter and this is their high and glorious light But I see the Apostles preached Christ they tell a story of a man born of the Virgin Mary apprehended of the Iewes and he was a publike person and bore the sins of his people and he was put to death and rose again for our justification In the preaching of the Apostles in the Acts we finde none of those Chymeras and Ideas and distinctions that we generally finde professors now aiming at But to know plain Christ crucified in a spirituall manner As compare 1 Cor. 2. with Philip. 3. we shall see clearly Paul saith he knew what the world did not know that eye did not see nor ear had heard and what was that Christ crucified and the power of his resurrection as he opens it Phil. 3. And besides as we finde it is a plaine simple thing 2. The instruments divulging it so we see the Lord chose simple people to go and preach it he chose generally fisher men and such poor men and women sometimes Rude men in a manner without learning these were to go and tell a simple story of Iesus Christ and him crucified c. I finde also the parties to whom the Gospell is directed 3. Those to whom it was
shall detain thee no longer from the matter but commend it to thy serious and judicious Consideration and it and thee to the blessing of him who onely can give increase to all good endevors and rest Thine in Christian Duty THO. SHELTON ISAIAH 9. 12 13 c. For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still c. MY intention is not to expound this Scripture but onely at this time to take occasion from the main drift of it to instruct you a little in that we are about The main drift of it is this That here the Lord by the Prophet threatens many and grievous judgments that should come upon this people you shall see who they are in the Chapter I say they were many and they were sore and grievous And the Lord doth begin as his usual maner is with some first and with the least and when the people would not turn to him that smote them then the Lord would send another plague on them For that is the meaning of that phrase His hand is stretched out still They went on in wickedness and then the Lord sends another plague His hand is stretched out still The stretching out of Gods hand is the executing of judgment upon wicked people usually So that he goes on with very fore judgments as here in this Chapter it is said A man shall eat the flesh of his own arm and yet the hand of the Lord is stretched out still A man would think that were the sorest that could be a man would think that were enough yet notwithstanding the hand of the Lord is stretched out still It is the maner of God throughout the Scripture The maner of Gods proceeding to and in judgments to defer judgments a long while before they come and when they come he sends them by degrees but when they come usually they are many and sore and it is uncertain when they will end as we see in Levit. 26. Amos 4. Isai 5. And here and in some of the Chapters following His hand is stretched out still Just so beloved it is with us at this time as I shall Application to our times shew you briefly for I told you I would not expound but take a word to quicken your hearts and mine that we may speak unto the Lord more advisedly You know a little while agone we thought that the Lord was coming to end the wars The Lord gave us victory upon victory after many corrections and judgments before and we thought they were now over but we were deceived as we were many times before You know God hath been many times about to end our miseries but he hath sent back for his mercies and so he hath done now he hath very strangely called back his mercies and loving kindness and hath stretched out his hand many ways against us God begins to raise up enemies again and to strengthen them he suffers the enemy to break in among us besides all expectation And how long or how far God will stretch out his hand that way who knoweth Let me deal plainly with you For this day we The cause of Gods judgment to be sought in our selves should deal plainly with God and our own souls and however through the week we look for Reasons and Causes of things in a natural way who followed and who were the Commanders and what were the Forces and the like yet it should be the business of this day to judg of things spiritually to see spiritual Reasons And here we see in this Chapter and many such That God stretcheth out his hand while there is some continuation of sins or some new provocation against the Lord therefore it may be God hath many more ends in it as doubtless he hath but certainly there is some strange provocation of God among us that the Lord deals so with us again And all this that we may now see that the miseries that are beginning to rise they are but the stretching out of Gods hand It is Gods Those are wilful provoking sins hand and as of private persons so of publike Nations it is not common frailties that grieve the Spirit but some wilful wickedness When a man hath sin at the slaves end and yet lets it come in to his bosome and when he sees sin through the Key-hole and yet opens the door and lets it come in So in a Nation it is not frailties and weakness there will be whoredom and drunkenness though these provoke God It is not so much this as some wicked provocations of God that are among us Therefore in a word give me leave a little to tell you what I conceive what I fear rather what is the reason why God afresh and anew stretcheth out his arme when we thought his sword was half put up yet now it comes out again and God knows how far it will go or how long it will continue Beloved we should be born with in searching our selves and beholding and confessing our sins and the sins of those that are among us especially in such days as these unlesse we will deale hypocritically with God and proclaim a fast day and come to humble your souls and no man look after his own sins and men not be allowed to bewaile the common sins I was considering that the Saints before confessed their own sins and the sins of others of their Princes and Magistrates and great ones and the true prophets were bold to tell them also of their sins Therefore though I delight not God he knoweth of any thing to speak of mens sins and if I do the Lord he knoweth I am more willing thorow his What they are among us grace to see my own then any mans sins and to speak of them and bewaile them Therefore I say I hope you will bear with me if I tell you my heart if I now were on my death-bed what I think according to this blessed book provokes the Lord that now so terribly he threatneth us again when we thought his anger was over Therefore I pray hear me I shall be brief The first thing that I fear highly provokes God among 1. A formal practice of penltential duties us and as long as we stretch out this line of sin he will stretch out the line of wrath That is our formall humiliation and repentance and fasting and such like things I do not speak neither can any man that hath charity think I speak against humiliation or repentance or fasting I desire to practise it but our humiliation and fasting and praying and repentance and these things they grow every day more formall then other that truly there is almost nothing but formality in the eye of spirituall Christians and they begin to loath it how much more the Lord who is a pure Spirit whose eyes are brighter then the Sun In Isay 1. you shall read that the Lord punished and chastised the people that there was no
he saith it is true I am so and there is no devil that hath worse thoughts but the more need I have to go to my Father for I am thy son I am sure of that and seeing that I am weaker then I was I have the more need to betake me to thy lap and into thy arms and so he grows more fond of God by sin it self Nay I will tell you a greater then that What can that be There is one greater and yet all this cannot quench the love and fondness that is between the soul and God that is when God corrects his childe with one sin for another It may be for his fault he lets him run to covet Places and Offices c. and the next day after the Lord suffers another lust to carry him as in a Chariot to hell that this may make him take heed how he looks after such things This is the worst between this and hell saith God Should I not now come and break thee in pieces as a villain No saith the soul this is a wise design of thy love and there is nothing but love in thee to me and there shall be nothing but pure love in me to thee Learn these things beloved There are many that come to hear and all that I can see from them is that if there be controversal they dispute of that when they come home but lay these things to heart as it is said of Mary and beg of the Lord to screw up your souls to that heavenly blessed Life that you may attain in this world 3. Assurance of conquest over all kinde of enemies The third thing before which a Saint will never be fond is God will convince him of an absolute perfect conquest over all his enemies A childe of God will never be fond till he be secure and he will never be so till God shew him by his Spirit that he is more then conqueror over most of his enemies and that he is a certaine conquerour over all And this is by faith for by sense sin prevails over us and if we say we have sin we do not say true But by faith when Satan is most severe he is conquered and sin when it is most violent he looks on it as a vassall at his foot intreating pardon It is said in Daniel that Christ came to bring in everlasting righteousness and make an end of sin A Saint by faith sees sin ended as hell and damnation and wrath and the curse is so sin shall be out of doors There is no damnation to them that are in Christ He hath redeemed us out of the hands of our enemies that we might serve him without fear as Zechary saith from all our enemies and he shall as Malachy saith tread his enemies as ashes under his feet This is that that keeps a Saint under he cannot come to the height of love to God because there is some enemy that over-tops him This day when he hears that our souls are over sin he is cheary but when he comes home there comes a sin or a temptation and breaks all and he is at a loss Now when faith is scrued so high as to tread on all enemies on sin which is the strongest say it be a strong temptation of covetousnesse thou studiest to purchase and to enlarge thine inheritance suppose there be such a thing in thy soul and it is violent and thou hast offered to resist it and thou canst not thou mayst say Sin though thou be strong and I cannot put thee cut thou hast bolted the door but thou art my slave and in the blood of Christ I am thy conquerour thou thinkest to conquer me but thou art my vassall and my slave And much more may he say so of Satan Thou molestest me but thou art condemned I am made Lord over thee in the blood of Christ Grace and sin will mount as the bird and the Hawk and the one seek to out-mount the other the bird for safety the Hawk for prey so grace and sin get one above another O saith grace I would be holy saith sin thou shalt be covetous I will pray saith grace but I will make thee my possession saith sin When the soul out-mounts sin to the place where dwelleth righteousnesse that Kingdom that cannot be shaken that I see all my enemies beneath and when they are most strong and imperious over me I look on them with a peaceable quiet spirit Last of all and so I have done with this notwithstanding all this the soul could not be fond of God but 4. By a spirituall ad hesion to the new Covenant as God gives him a spirituall understanding of the new Covenant the enemies will over-mount the soul else As for instance to give you but one illustration there are such pangs and such a temper in the soul of a Saint as that sometimes nothing in the world can give him satisfaction there is sin and temptation and it may be paine in body and where is God and the spirit and any thing to help God can help but who knows whether he will or no now I am in the hands of mine enemies In comes the Covenant O saith the soul it is true I am in the hands of mine enemies and God may chuse whether he will rescue me He might have done but now he is bound in an everlasting Covenant that with reverence God must help time was when God might have cast me to hell and he was not bound to save me but the case is altered God is bound to save me Therefore saith David Though my house be not so with God yet there is a Covenant this is my desire and joy Many times the soul is so that nothing can relieve it but the Covenant that God is bound that God cannot though he would desert him If you examine what this Covenant is and whereto it is The Lord knows we are apt to measure him by our selves and so we do in every thing we think our thoughts as Gods thoughts and his thoughts as ours therefore God is willing to condescend unto us in our own way for that God that contrived a way of salvation before the world was we may not fear but that that love will carry us thorow but God would come in our way and take that way that one man doth with another because we are apt to measure God by our selves therefore he comes and saith and if that serve not he swears and if that will not serve he brings a seal and a Covenant and then with men a man is safe enough So Gods word had been enough but because we should have strong consolation that must be conveyed according to our apprehensions and thoughts there God saith and swears and makes a Covenant and binds himself that we may see him bound Therefore saith the Apostle in the Galatians If it be but a mans Covenant none can dissanull it As if he should say I made this
old but the way to Heaven is so narrow that in the profession of Religion abundance of them do fall away And few men fall away at the first but when the tryall comes when the Sun ariseth as our Lord saith So a learned expositer upon it saith that it may be thirty or fourty or fifty or sixty yeers among professors there may be many hypocrites and there are more that have but a common work of the spirit of God thereupon our Lord speaking onely to professors such as they were Matt. 13. where he saith three of the four were rotten and come to nothing and the fourth only hold out Some mens sins are open before saith Paul and some follow after We see it by some men setting out in Religion they never come to any thing but some mens sins follow after Some men go far and walk gloriously and afterward are discovered And truly it is a rule among the best of our ministers that seldome or never hypocrites go out of this world undiscovered And hence it comes to passe by the falls of hypocrites and those that have not a saving work of grace that great ones fall away and little low ones outstrip them Secondly it comes to passe that the first are last and the last first because the Lord for reasons best known to himself for the most part so casts it that even among true professors true Saints the most part of them when they grow ancient in Religion especially they take a napp before they go hence They go as travellers in the way that go out betime in the morning but take a baite of two or three hours in the way and so slow travellers get before them There is not one in ten ordinarily but hath a shrewd napp when he is ancient in Religion before he go hence Thereupon we see the ten Virgins Matt. 25. The wise Virgins slept as well as the foolish they all slept but the wise Virgins awaked in time and got up again and the foolish slept it out And while they are napping and sleeping the first becomes last and the last first For we may not think that all such ancient professors that they have no grace We see now are there not some Magistrates and many Ministers old non-conformists that are now generally napping and sleeping that you would think there were nothing of God in them we may not think that they belong not to the Lord and that they have no grace This is the time when many simple souls get into Christ and the knowledg of Christ and have further enjoyments of spirit and communion of spirit with him then those grave Ministers and Common-wealths men that before held out Religion more then others yet we are not to think that they have no grace Therefore of this briefly there are these four or five practicall lessons that we should learn The first is that all you that are ancient Christians 1. Vse to avoid security ancient professors if ye stand to take heed least ye fall How should this me thinks make an ancient Saint watch how should he avoid security when it is ordinary for old Christians to take a napp and so not to be higher in Heaven they lose much of their glory in Heaven nay they lose their honour here ye some men think them to be hypocrites Therefore stand on your guard say not we have been professors twenty or thirty or fourty yeers as ordinary professors bragg of their standing in Religion No but remember this lesson there are many first that shall be last therefore walk watchfully and circumspectly Think with your selves and O that the Lord would open the eyes of ancient Christians in this City to see poor souls of a yeer or half a yeers standing start up that have more of Christ in them and more clear knowledge of the Gospell and love him more and his Saints and do more for him then they do O look about thee and consider with thy self that though thou be ancient and before that man or woman in Christ yet thou mayst come a great while after him to heaven for all that Therefore saith Paul I press hard to that which is before It is a comparrison from men that run in a race As the heathen Poet saith when a man runs in a race he never looks on the horses that are behind him but if there be one before him he looks to that Beloved look that if thou be before others take heed that thou come not to the goale after them Secondly let ancient professors ancient Christians 2. Not to contemn others learn not to despise and contemn weak Saints young beginners nay not sinners themselves I have observed it to the grief of my soul with the bleeding of my heart a great deal of contempt and disdaine in the brows of some ancient Christians against some weak Saints take heed of it for though thou be first and great now thou art honoured now as an excellent Prayer in London as one excellent in a day of humiliation who knows whether thou that art first mayst not be last Therefore contemn not weak Saints No nor sinners there is many a man that may be in the Ale-house a drinking and swearing and whoring and his quean with him that may be in heaven before thee therefore be tender to sinners especially if it be a Saint that hath any thing of God in him consider he that is first may be last and the last may be first Thirdly let weak Saints and young beginners learn 3. Weak ones not to bear themselves unreverently hence also as on the one side that I may put in that caveat not to behave themselves unreverently toward the ancient I would not have old Saints to crow over the young muchlesse the young over the ancient Saith Paul rebuke not an elder but rather exhort him If we in preaching must not speak so sharply to ancient Christians whether elders in Office or rather in Religion as I believe it is we must not rebuke him but speak with reverence so much more young Christians must speak reverently of ancient Christians and not say there goes such an old professor and such a one saith the first shall be last and so despise him No but as God hath put the law of nature that the young shall observe the elder and the junior shall respect the senior so in grace and Religion people must observe their duty Therefore young women must learn of the old and old women should be teachers of good things to young women not given to wine c. beware of petulant wanton carriage towards old professors So on the other side be not discouraged by seeing the Neither to be discouraged graces in ancient strong Christians It is an ordinary thing for weak Saints to be more discouraged at the graces of strong Saints then at any thing else As a weak eye that looks on the Sun can see just nothing so many a
1. In dictating a world of prayers to us that you may see the greatness of his power what a world of prayers doth the Spirit of God put into thy heart that thou art never able to utter with thy mouth All the wisdom in the world cannot make one spiritual petition we may make forms of Prayer but now the Spirit of God that knoweth the minde of God as the Apostle saith that maketh prayers according to the will of God and he prayes with sighs and groans unutterable I speak to them that know the working of the Spirit how many thousand prayers doth God put into thy heart that it is impossible for thee to utter with thy mouth Thou canst not speak to God one petition of fourty that the Spirit puts into thy heart That some conceive to be the meaning of that in Rom. 8. The Spirit prays with sighes unutterable not because of our weakness but because of their strength and they are so numerous they are so many that when a poor Saint goes to pray one petition stops another and throngs it out that he cannot utter it If the Lord should hear only those prayers that thou makest with thy mouth thou wouldest be but a poor man but the Lord respects the prayers of the heart Therefore I say to have power to make one prayer and to have such innumerable sighes and groans in the soul too it must be an exceeding great power Secondly consider this how much the Spirit of 2. In supplying us when we pray not God doth for thee and in thee that thou never prayedst for nor never couldest pray for no not so much as in heart If the Lord did answer all the prayers of heart and tongue that we make throughout all the year a man would think that were a great matter but surely they are so few considering our wants and they are so confused and blinde that I am confident if God should deal with thy soul and mine according to our prayers all the year we should be miserable creatures all our lives God exerciseth us to pray and many of them he answers in their kinde and he is pleased with our obedience in every thing but surely God hath a higher rule of doing us good and the Spirit of God works in a more methodicall and wise and merciful and blessed way then we can pray I have sometimes wondred that God hath made promises to answer many prayers that we make but I wonder more that God should grant things that we pray not for This is the exceeding greatness of his power Thirdly consider the exceeding greatness of his 3. By teaching us inwardly power in this respect in his teaching how the Spirit of God teacheth his people and servants he teacheth them above what they are taught outwardly by men As thus Cast with thy self suppose thou hadst every Sermon that thou hast heard in thy life and every Lecture that thou hast heard on the week days and on the Lords day that thou hadst them in order and method suppose they were written in thy heart and fresh in thy memory that thou didst understanding and remember every Sermon that thou hast heard which no man doth a man would think such a one to be a very knowing man Truly if thou hadst it so thou mightest be a miserable confused blinde man for all that for all that ever thou hast heard preached thou mightest be a blinde creature for alas our teaching comes with so much weakness and dross with it and one saith and another unsaith and if we consider it in a natural way we shall never be made knowing men by all outward teaching in the world But now the Spirit of God comes in and he is pleased indeed to make use of it that we shall teach outwardly but alas the Spirit of God reads such a Lecture in the heart of a Saint and clears things and orders things and assures things and settles things that are right and discovers things that are not and inlargeth and sweetens and quickens them that it may be a man in hearing one Sermon of an hour long may be taught more then another man in hearing Sermons seven years together This is the exceeding greatness of the power of the Spirit of God that truly beloved I have often thought with my self I speak not to disparage our teaching and your hearing but our coming to teach and you to hear it is as your sending your little children to School to keep their cloaths clean and to keep them from play they learn nothing in a manner for your money onely they are obedient to their Parents and are quiet and are in the School where teaching is So you come to hear and we to teach but all our teaching in a manner is by the Spirit of God Therefore it is a wonderful thing to see how quickly the Spirit of God will make a Schollar ripe how in a quarter of a year nay in a moneth almost the Spirit of God will fill him with all spirituall learning whereas the best preacher in the world let him Preach concisely and exactly in a natural way he shall not teach him the tenth part Nay we reach you we preach it may be four or five Sermons and we open it as well we can poor earthen creatures and when we come to look on it a quarter of a year after we finde that those notions that it may be were so confused and poor while we were teaching you that there is a glorious piece made in your souls by the Spirit of God though our Notes when they were done were scarce worth the burning we are so poor and frail in teaching and you in your outward hearing therefore there is an exceeding great power that works in you that believe Fourthly and lastly for I speak this to inhaunce and 4 By working our works in and for us advance the Spirit of God as Paul saith we are not debters to the flesh but to the Spirit you ow more to the Spirit then you are aware of consider in all the good that you do in all the good works that you do how wonderful passive you are in the doing of them We have a saying It holds true I gainsay it not in a sort that a man in conversion is passive and afterwards he is active that is God in a mans conversion works on a man as a dead creature only he is rational but he suffers and works not with God but when he is converted then a man hath a principle of life God works and man works man works with God and it is a true comparison we were then passive now we are active But in respect of the principle by which we move and walk truely a Christian may say I am altogether passive in a manner in all that I do God carries a mans tongue to speak and his hands to work and his feet to walk God carries a man in good many times and
glorifies himself many times and a man knows not how in the world he comes to do it or why he did it or how he came about it so God doth many glorioous things by us and we are not aware This is the Lord this is the greatness of his power God in some actions he either carries a man and doth his work by a man without a man as it were or else he doth it above him There is no good almost that thou doest but thou shalt clearly see that it is above thee that it is God thou wert never able to speak or to do or to go through any such thing but the Lord went through with it It may be some of you understand not what it is to do a thing without you it is too spiritual but there are Christians that may and can say God did it without me I was as a block I know not how I was scarce active with God God did all O great and glorious is that power look which way you will what that power is in changing thy nature in destroying old Adam what that power is in resisting temptations what that power is in wrestling and prevailing with God what that power is to uphold thee in the wicked world and to preserve thee to the last day Consider it every way it is great wondrous glorious and mighty and exceeding mighty is that power that works in them that believe even the power of the Spirit of God The Spirit is called power Power it self as it were not that I deny the person of the Spirit thereby as if the Spirit were nothing but the energy or working of God that is not the meaning but he is called power because as it were he is nothing but power whatsoever he doth he doth powerfully and gloriously and effectually Angels work in little common outward things marke the difference between the assistance of the Spirit and of Angels The Angels are ministring spirits sent out to wait upon the Saints How do Angels work for us Angels make not prayers in us Angels never subdue one sin in me they can never bring peace to my conscience and soul Angels converse not in spiritual things but in outward things Angels keep thee that thou dash not thy foot against a stone they keep thee from breaking thy neck they keep fire from thine house but spiritual things are done by the Spirit of God the exceeding greatness of power is by the Spirit Therefore consider of this word be not such poor low-hearted creatures to be afraid of every ill and to be discouraged from going about any good thing I say consider the power that dwels in you and indeavor to give glory to God to magnify the blessed Spirit that works in you to admire it for the more you admire the Spirit the more vile you will be in your selves and the viler you are in your selves that you attribute all to the Spirit the more glory God shall have and then things will be as they should be in the best order for God and man Expositions and Observations on EPHESIANS 5. 1 2. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love c. THe Apostle in this Chapter and especially in that going before exhorts the Saints to walk worthy of their calling that is to walk humbly and meekly c. towards God and men and there he shews sometimes the good they should follow and the evil they should leave promiscuously which is meant by walking worthy of their calling And here in this first verse saith he I beseech you be followers of God as dear children He puts in this motive to all the holiness he speaks of before and after that as dear children of a blessed father they would hearken to him that they would hate all the evil and cleave to all the good he had proposed to them so that the Lesson is this That The Do ∣ ctrine Our spiritual priviledges should as much ingage us to holiness as they should help on our comfort My meaning is this you know in this wicked world wherein we are this is one Gospel way that we use and practise and have been taught that whensoever we came near the Lord especially then we should indeavor to raise up our souls by the consideration of our Gospel-priviledges and the relations between us and God When you and I come to pray we study as much as we can to look on him as a father and we do well and to look on our selves as sons and daughters as those that are in Christ as those that have their sins pardoned and covered in him to look on our selves as the Spouse and Wife of Christ And all the relations we can make out and all the priviledges that are laid down in Scripture we seek to own them whereby to get up our souls to some joy and comfort before the Lord and this is a good and blessed thing when we do so for the Lord would have his children as to live holily so he delights to see them live comfortably The Lord takes delight in the prosperity of his people But here now you and I miss we do this out of a kinde of Self-love because we would have comfort we make use of our priviledges and plead our relations but we should also make use of them to move us to holiness and to resist sin and evil as well as to raise us to comfort and consolation And thence it is that we are so oft foyled with sin because we walk as men as the children of men as the Scripture saith we forget in what a station God hath put us in what grace and glory we stand through Jesus Christ Therefore when we are walking and conversing in the world we look on our selves as men we think of our neighbours what they would have done in such a case and it may be we thinke of natural reason it may be of corrupt reason but we do not state our selves all the day as sons and daughters of God Man naturally doth not love to reflect upon himself which saith Dr. Preston is the difference between a man and a beast take two or three children it may be one is a Lords son and another the son of a Begger they reflect upon themselves you shall see by their carriage the poor childe carries himself respectively to the other the other carries himself disdainfully to him So all people every one hath a kinde of conclusion upon himself from natural considerations Such a one carries himself high he reflects so upon himself Why he thinks he is a man of such parts of such fortunes and breeding and feature and the like and he carries himself accordingly It is so with all mankinde Now if we would have the Spirit of God shine upon our souls and draw such conclusions alway that lie in our breasts that I am a son a daughter of God one in Christ married to Christ bone of his bone and
flesh of his flesh that I may walk all the day thus cloathed with these reflexions then when we come to sin when temptation is offered it may be the devil will say such a one did it that is wiser then thou and such a one that is a fellow of the same calling then this positive actual reflexion upon the soul that thou art in Christ this would make thee say O but how shall I do it Jesus Christ died for me Jesus Christ hath washed me in his blood I am one with him What if the children of darkness do so is it fit for a childe of light what if sinners do so is it fit for a man that God hath called out of sin and out of the world is it fit for him to do so We seldome carry those reflexions about us when The Saints should reflect upon their high condition we go abroad among the snares of the world therefore we fall into sin for the older we are in grace the more full of snares the world is I could shew that you can name no place in the new Testament where our priviledges and relations are mentioned but as the holy Ghost mentions them to raise up the soul for comfort so expresly to stir us up to holiness 1 John 3. 1. Behold what manner of love God hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God! I am perswaded that the Primitive Saints in the new Testament did generally look upon themselves distinct as a Common wealth and a people redeemed out of the world and in the light of that they did so walk they did alway speak so of themselves We are the first fruits of the spirit we are the sons of God we are redeemed and bought with a price We are the sons of God but it doth not appear what we shall be but when he shall come we shall be like him O this gives comfort but what then what follows He that hath this hope purifieth himself as he is pure This hope is somewhat like that reflexion I am speaking of when there is an actual hope in the soul of being with the Lord and an actuall positive perswasion that I am the Lords then a man will purify himself as God is pure I might mention a hundred places in the new Testament 2 Cor. 6. Come out from among them seperate your selves and touch no unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be your father and you shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty This is very comfortable that we shall be his sons and daughters and that he will be our Father What then In the beginning of the next Chapter Having therefore these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God If we be the sons and daughters of God and he be our Father therefore we should be holy in soul and body and spirit I remember a little Story of a great Monarch though I do not much trouble you with them but it doth a little illustrate what we speak of walking with his son a Prince the great Emperor seeing little poor children to play and tumble in the dirt he said to his son Why dost not thou go and play with them Saith he I would if I did see any Kings and Princes children play with them he reflected upon himself that he was a Prince a Kings son and it was not fit for them to tumble in the dirt So you may say when you see Drunkards and Whoremongers and Extortioners if the devil tempt you in your hearts and say Why dost not thou do so why dost not thou get money as yonder man doth or labor to be great in the world O say do the sons of God use to do so to cozen and cheat and be drunk and lie If the Saints did so then it were another thing but shall I that am a Prince that am a son of God shall I be a Scullion and wallow in the dirt Therefore I say it is enough to an honest heart to propose a pitch that is above him that he never attained and what will he do he will seek and not give over till God have wrought it God wrought it in most of the Saints of old therefore let us labor with the Lord that we may have such considerations alway about us O how gloriously should we walk if we had still actuall considerations I am a son I am a daughter of God! How humbly should we walk towards our brethren how weaned from this world what Pilgrims would we be here upon earth doubtless we run and lanch into the world by forgetting of our relations and stations so that as in Gen. 6. The sons of God married the daughters of men We walk as the sons of men and miscarry as the sons and daughters of mem If we did alway walk and look upon our selves as the sons and daughters of God we should in some poor measure express something of the sons and daughters of God in every word and carriage and action towards God and men c. Expositions and Observations on PHILIPPIANS 2. 1 2 3. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies Fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde Let nothing be done through strife or vaine glory but in lowliness of minde let each esteem other better then themselves THe Lesson that the Lord gave you and me lately to consider of and to do was rightly to love the Saints to love Saints ought to love though they be not beloved our brethren and the way you remember was that we should not make that the ground of our love to our brethren because they love us but because we are beloved of God we should love though we be not beloved of men He that will not love his brethren till he be loved of them nor no further nor no longer then he is beloved he shall never love them much nor love them rightly at all because all goes upon a wrong ground and by a false rule And therefore we should set upon the practice of that duty in these times of division that whatsoever man I look on as a Saint or see the Image of God in him I should indeavor to bring my heart to love him If he love not me let him look to that I shall not answer for that that shall be laid on his score but if I love not my brother that shall be laid on my score and as my account so my comfort I mean true spiritual comfort both here and hereafter it is not in this that I am much beloved but that I love much I spake to you of that more at large then and I hope you will indeavor to bring your souls to be doers of this blessed truth as
heavenly things in the language of Scripture a thing that if we could grow up to we should overthrow a thousand distinctions in Divinity we mistake things taking them in the old Notion John 14. what is the difference between the world and the people of Christ I will send thc Spirit which the world cannot receive The world are men that have not nor cannot receive the Spirit of God and the Saints are those that do and have received the Spirit of God You read in 2 Joh. 2. 18. of men that had made a great profession that were faln off that were faln away saith he They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us There are many faln away saith he but they were not of us Why What are you might some say We saith he have received an unction an anoynting and it abides with us And ye need not that any should teach you that will teach you all things They that fall off they were not of us Why they have not the Spirit of God therefore they were not of us So when the Apostles preached sometimes it is said that some of them believed and some did not and at other times it is said when they preached that the Spirit of God did fall upon the people that is they were converted they were born again they were made Saints So in Rom. 8. where the Apostle speaks of being in Christ and out of Christ which is the great point of all and salvation and damnation hangs upon it This is his language they that are in Christ walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit So in the language of the spirit of God the maine thing that belongs to a Saint it is not as we ordinarily account it there are a hundred things that we call Religion that God doth not A drunkard may be stricken with terrour in hearing the word and we say such a one is converted and it may be not and there are hundreds of other people that may pray twice a day and hear Sermons and repeat them and out of a naturall principle of devotion may have affections this is not Christianity or Gospel Religion There are abundance of professours among us that the Holy Ghost will not own because they have not the spirit Therefore the maine way whereby we may judge of a Saint or a sinner is whether he have the spirit of God in him or no. O such a one doth great things he prayes and hears and reads and disputes much I but hath he the spirit or no But you will say How shall I look for that How shall I know that I will tell you how A man may know the spirit The Spirit in us to be known by its own evidence in himself clearly by the evidence of the same spirit And a man that hath the spirit may know the spirit in another by the spirit There is a kind of Sagacity among the Saints whereby they having the spirit are able though not expresly and clearly to behold the spirit in another We are the sons of God but the world knows us not worldly men know not the Saints from Schismaticks and Hereticks and usually spirituall people receive those names from the world Schismaticks and Hereticks and the like But a man that hath the spirit of God he can see as clearly as a natural man can with his eyes How can a poor lamb know the dam among a thousand There is a Sagacitie in nature and so there is here in grace they have the same spirit As when Elizabeth and Mary were talking the Babe in Elizabeths Womb leaped hearing the words of Mary that then had the Lord Jesus conceived in her I give you but a little resemblance from naturall things The Saints know it and their fellowship is in the spirit Our communion is in God and not in such a Covenant or meerly in outward duties but our communion is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ and in the spirit with all his Saints Therefore labor for the spirit of God Truly God is now coming I am confident it is his designe in these latter times to exalt his spirit and to pull and throw down every thing that exalts it self against the spirit that stands in his light and Eclipseth the glory of it And though the world which cannot receive the spirit of truth do either blaspheme or else do set little by it yet surely it is the will of God that all his children should honour it These thousand yeers learning and naturall parts and morall good works and supersticious good works have been exalted Now in these later times Our Sun shall be turned into darkness and our Moon into blood That is as the learned * Calvin interpret it all the glorious things that we had before the pouring out of the spirit that we made Suns and Moons of God will blast them I speak not against learning simply it is usefull especially in a Common-wealth but as far as learning intrencheth upon the spirit of God God will blast it learned men shall be laid by as Cyphers God will blast their labours that we might honour the spirit There is one place that comes to my heart with much sweetness Psal 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfection but thy law is very broad We have seen an end of all perfection of learning of common gifts of naturall parts we have seen God blast these one after another but Gods law is very broad The morall law the law of the letter is broad much more the law of the spirit of life in Christ that is extolled more and more therefore all must down to extoll the spirit of God Truly Religion is a hundred wayes mistaken by people I could give a hundred instances especially in your Catechismes where it is asked What is Religion It is such and such Christian Religion or Gospel Religion under the New Testament consists of two things Christ crucified and the pouring out of the spirit of God These are the two pillars of our Religion in the New Testament And this is all we have to preach to you and as far as any thing hath not relation to these two things it is not the Ministery of the Gospel it is not Gospel Religion We speak much of reformation and it is to be desired but among other errours in Religion this is one many think that the main point in Religion is the setting up of government whereas our main reformation is in pulling down and not in setting up for we have a world of institutions set up that will never hold And among those latter institutions that good people have set up I believe that there are not many will hold but these will the Doctrine of Christ crucified and the pouring out of Gods spirit And as many as tend to this and flow from this without scruple I think
we may die for them But when our Bibles have gone through the hands of Papists so many hundered yeers when a man shall come to die for it he is afraid that such a thing may be crept into the text a thousand such thoughts of Athiesme will come upon a man but when a man can say this is Christ crucified and Christ pouring out of his spirit let the particles and the words run as they will this is the maine that will hold As the Gospell was intended and designed for simple men more then others so with reverence the Gospell is a more simple plain thing then most men in the world conceive The Gospell needs not the thousand part of the distinctions and definitions that the schoolmen have and that men multiply It is a simple story concerning Christ crucified and how the Holy Ghost was poured upon men and this was preached by fishermen as God gave them utterance and it was prophesied of before If Religion be a simple thing taught by fisher-men with the pouring out of the Spirit then there need not all those disputes concerning the Arts c. For my part I think learning to be a very good thing to perfect a mans naturalls but I think on the other side that a man that savingly and clearly knows Christ crucified and the pouring out of the spirit he is the fittest man in the world to be a preacher We should know things a thousand fold better and clearer then we do if we would judg of things as God judgeth of them if we would use the language of the Scripture and the notions of the holy spirit in the Scripture If we would know a Saint from a sinner as I said a man that is the Lords and another that is not this is the maine way the chief essentiall difference the one hath the spirit the other hath not It is not so much whether yonder man pray or fast or preach or repeat or whether he doth many good outward morall things but whether he hath the spirit of God though it be now almost a ridiculous thing to name the spirit of God We should I say distinguish man from man by the spirit And labour in a speciall manner to assure our selves that we have the spirit of God We should not rest in this that I have left such sins or I do such duties but go on still till I come up to this that with all humility and thankfulnesse I may say God hath given to me of his holy spirit the spirit of Jesus Christ dwells in my heart Paul was humble and modest enough in his expressions yet he could boldly say he had the spirit We have the earnest of the spirit And Iohn could say so of other Saints Ye have an unction or an annointing 1 Iohn 2. and that was the blessed spirit Truly beloved it is a comfortable thing in respect of himself for a poor creature to see many stumble at the word of God whereas if we would resolve to be wise in the wisdom of God and to speak of things as the Scripture speaks to look on things as the Scripture looks on them to use those phrases and expressions and those notions we should understand many mysteries in godlinesse which now are little lesse then stumbling blocks to us because there is a kind of thwarting wisdom in us that is crosse to that God is now I told you about to exalt the spirit yet not in a way contrary to the Scripture but the spirit in the Scripture I mean Therefore learn this lesson to strive for this as the chief thing to finde the spirit of God in you dwelling and working in you because as in the Old Testament there was one great promise to wit of the Messias the Lord Jesus that was the great promise and all other promises belonged to that So in the New Testament there is but one great promise the promise of the father as Christ calls it and that is the pouring out of the Spirit Therefore as the Lord hath been teaching us of late yeers to know his Son Christ crucified the doctrine of justification where our righteousnesse lies c. So let us not think these speculations enough but take the other maine thing that is as great as this the doctrine of the spirit That I may as well finde the spirit working in me as to know without that Jesus Christ died for me If Religion were stated aright I mean Christianity Christian Religion under the New Testament not in books but the life of Christianty it would be to know Christ crucified and to enjoy the spirit of Christ that when we read the New Testament and cast up the bill of account when we have done there is the sum of all the two hinges that all goes on Therefore take heed of being deceived by notionall knowledge of things onely without you though it be never so glorious For if thou be a Saint thou hast the Spirit of God really dwelling in thee in its measure as truly as in the Lord Iesus Christ as it is in Ephes 1. the latter end the spirit that works in them that believe O the spirit of God is a glorious thing It is that that not only makes the grand difference between a Saint and a sinner but even in a godly man the spirit is all in all in Religion Let the spirit but stir in him though he be never so dark yet all is light before him Let the spirit come and comfort him though he be in chains of Iron though he be in the greatest misery in this world yet he can sing Psalms Let the spirit be given him and then not only faith and the promises but graces and common providences every thing speaks the love of God to his soul But let the spirit withdraw from him if the Lord take away his spirit but for a moment even from the best Saint his body and his soul are no better If I may speake it then a meer carrion I allude to that of Iames The body without the soul is dead So take the body and soul without the spirit of God it is dead Dead What is that Thus take a living body that I may follow the comparison a little there is no living body but he can do something though some can do more then others yet every living body can do something he can sit or walk or talk c. And as he can do some good so he can resist some evil If a man be dying almost if you go to poure water in his throat he can turn his head aside But let the soul be away he can neither do any good I speak now of naturall civill good or resist evil So it is with the soul let the Lord take away his spirit and we are quite flat Let the Lord propose any good work to do let any part of the will of God be presented there is no stirring at all in the soul