to them that turn the grace of God into wantonnesse I am not able to tell my thoughts how fine the temptations of Satan are grown by this salvation by every Sermon he increaseth his knowledg and will to the end more and more and those temptations that take us now our children will laugh at them because knowledge shall increase Therefore take heed of pride and arrogancie walk humbly and hearken to advice for thou hast an enemy that learns more at one Sermon then thou dost at three Use 3 Another thing is this see what a glorious Jewel the Gospel is what a glorious pearl when the angels come To make us admire the glorious Pearl and riches of the Gospel down to study it The Angels in heaven see God and for ought I know they have as much happiness as ever they shall have they are sent down to the Saints to wait on them and that they that it concerns not should be so taken with it it must needs be a glorious Iewel Therefore some conceive that the Cherubins in the law there were two Cherubins over the Ark on the mercy seat one looking towards another God ordered it so so as they were prying as it were into the mercy seat and some conceive they were a type of the Angels prying into the glorious mysteries of the New Testament looking one at another and wondring as it were It is a glorious Jewel Therefore let us praise God for it and indeavour to use all means to keep it up Many devises the devil hath to pull it down though he get nothing but make himself more miscrable so there will not be such wanting still To instance in one take heed of Idolizing discipline and government that is so to give our selves up to seek a government that we care not what hindrance we do to the Gospel the while As there are some here among us in hindring the poor Welch Ministers from preaching to the people onely because they suspected them to be Independents this is but the beginning of sorrows if men may have their will for discipline and government we shall loose this Gospel which the Angels pry into discipline and government is good but we must not loose the Gospel for it keep up that And beloved if ever the Lord set peace among you think of those poor countries that have not this Iewel and Pearl If God raise men you may finde out some way or other whereby to maintaine them And it is more then allowing them maintenance for you are to stickle with that generation of wicked men that for every trifle and nicity hinder poor people from enjoying the Gospel and pretend either it may be he is not a Vniversity man he is no master of Arts it may be he hath Greek and Latine and not Hebrew though he be full of the Holy Ghost and yet the people must be starved Let us do what we can to prize and advance the Gospell hold it up before every soul If the Angels come down from heaven to prie into our Gospel how much should we prize it and not suffer people that we shall curse seven yeers hence that we blesse now that would couzen us of the Gospell be not cheated of the Gospel it is a precious Pearl it is all that this poor ruind tottered Kingdom hath left for peace and wealth are gone and there is a foundation of a new war laid only God hath kept up the Gospell in England as much as in any kingdom in the world Beware of men of wolves in sheeps cloathing beware of all the instruments of the devil that would beguile you and your poor children of this Iewel Vse 4 Lastly be forward and ready to every good work though it do not much concern you Truly there is a loveliness in To be ready to every good work good works though they concern not me and my good yet I should have a hand in them I mean though they concern not my calling There is a disposition in men that they wil meddle with nothing but their end is their profit or credit The Angels prie into our Gospel what have they to do with it They love to see the wonderfull wisdome of God in it and to see Christ woing sinners and take them in his Arms it is nothing to them yet they rejoyce that poor sinners should be saved and they rejoyce to see the justice of God and the wisdom and mercy of God how sweetly they be reconciled and glorified in his Gospel So let us when any good work is to be done though I and my family be not concerned in it yet let us go among them and do what we can This is the Plague of this age that many are about doing of good that is certain but there are some wheeles of their own ends in it I cannot say it of every Officer but in any Office or place in the City you shall have some that have wheels of their own ends that move all and if that be away all stands still Let us love good works for good works sake for the beauty of the work Expositions and Observations on IUDE 19. Sensual not having the Spirit I Am not now in an Expounding way further then I must of necessity to shew who these are that are said not to have the Spirit but onely I shall pick out a Lesson for you you may easily see if you reade the Chapter they were a generation of Professors of whom Peter speaks much They despised Magistracy they were spots in their feasts of love clouds carried about with every winde Wells without water Trees whose fruit was withered twice dead and plucked up by the roots for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness You see what their qualities were and you may see what their misery should be compare Jude with 2 Pet. 2. Among the rest of their properties this is one they have not the Spirit This is the last of all that the Apostle names They are sensual not having the Spirit And he usually reserves the greatest things last in his eloquence and way of speaking Now then the Lesson is this That The greatest difference that I know in all the Book of God between Saints and Sinners is that the one hath the Spirit and the other hath not There are a thousand differences even in Scripture but they are none of them so substantial as this that a Saint is a man that hath the Spirit and a Sinner is one that hath not the Spirit one that is without the Spirit Therefore the Apostles when they were Preaching and met with any Disciples and Professors they asked presently Have ye received the Spirit It is not meant onely nor chiefly of the common gifts of the Spirit but certainly it is meant principally of the spirit of holiness Have you received the holy Ghost or no So our Lord Christ speaking of the world and the Church to see what a blessed thing it is to see
blessed power and strength to do that it teacheth therefore saith the Apostle Sin shall not have dominion over you because ye are not under the Law but under Grace Expositions and Observations on EPHESIANS 3. 20. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us THe Apostle ends his Prayer for the Ephesians in a general manner with a kinde of Thanksgiving Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly according to the power that worketh in us According to the power that worketh in us There is a mighty power that worketh in the Saints and you shall see that power Ephes 1. 19. saith he I desire that you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward that believe according to the working of his mighty power It is not weakness but power and not a small power but a mighty power a great power an exceeding great mighty power That worketh in you The Saints are strong creatures If you ask what this power is you shall see in the verse following The power which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places far above all principalities and powers c. That is the power of his holy Spirit that dwells in us greater is he that dwelleth in us then he that dwelleth in the world We have a greater power in us then can be from the world or hell against us And that power is illustrated here by the raising of Iesus from the dead and setting him up in heavenly places There was no active power that ever God expressed that can be compared to that of raising Christ from the dead It was a power and a great power and Gods power too to make this world and it is a power to preserve it but that power is not comparable to this when Jesus Christ was dead under the curse of the Law and under the wrath of God and under all our sins under the malice of men and under a great stone that was rowled on him and for a dead man to be raised up through all those oppositions of heaven and earth and hell and to be set in peace at the right hand of glory and majestie on high It must be an exceeding great power The Saints do not consider what strength they have If thou didst consider what strength thou hast in thee thou wouldest not be afraid to hear a Cross thou wouldst not be discouraged to attempt any work for God thou wouldest not be dismaied at the threatnings of men no nor at the temptations of the devil there is such an exceeding great and mighty power that works in them that believe This power is the power of the Spirit of God for that is the power of the most High the holy Ghost shall overshadow thee and the power of the most High shall come upon thee The holy Ghost is the power of God which dwelleth in the Saints And therefore my aime is to fasten that word on you and to shew you how you come short of that life and strength and grace that otherwise you might have for want of magnifying and exalting the Spirit of God which is the Conduit the Intelligencer that which brings light and life and strength to our souls from God The Spirit of God is lightly esteemed therefore we have little grace a low esteem of the Spirit will keep a Saint low all his days I thought to have instanced in a few things wherein you undervalue the Spirit One is that you do not hearken enough nor regard and observe enough the teaching of the Spirit of God and that is one cause why we are left to our selves and do so often miss the will of God For I know not according to the Covenant of Grace why a Saint should at any time miss the will of God but that he doth not observe his Leader For I will give you the Spirit saith Christ that shall lead you into all truth Now if you observe not this Leader this Teacher it is very just that you should be left to wander and go out of the way If a Christian would observe his way and observe his leader a Christian might easily finde when he is in and when he is out for truly if a man would ask himself Why did I miss the will of God so often since I have such a Teacher promised me and given me by Christ he must needs say that oftentimes I did not observe him I did not hearken to him I hearkened only to men and not to the Spirit of God And so he would easily finde when he began to give over harkning where he left the teaching of the Spirit for in my apprehension a Saint follows the holy Ghost with a kinde of sagacity if I may compare it with reverence just as we see the Dog follow the Hare there is something in Nature that the Dog knows which way the Hare went when a wiser creature knows not so there is something in a poor Saint that when all the wise men in the world know not which way God went a Saint can tell Onely the Dog may hunt upon a cold sent and think the Hare went that way and it grows colder and colder and he misseth So a Saint shall finde when he misseth the will of God that the Spirit of God hath not left him unless it be very rare as the Spirit left Christ to be tempted in the wilderness so he may leave thee to pull down thy pride and to humble thee Isay that is rare but ordinarily the Spirit leaves not thee but thou lettest goe thy leader and thou goest all the while on a cold sent A Saint though he headlong follows this or that conceit yet notwithstanding he may know when he comes to look upon himself surely I went upon a cold sent in those things though I followed them headlong and giddily it was not of the Spirit it was not the same teaching that I had ordinarily Therefore observe your leader hearken to the Spirit of God If God give you him as a master he expects that his children should learn and see when you go in the way of the Spirit of God and you may easily finde that if you will avoid headlongness and giddiness and rashness I speak not this as if the Spirit were contrary to the Word as some men to advance the Spirit set the Word and Spirit by the ears but the Spirit leads by the Word That which I chiefly intended to shew you was The power of the Spirit set out in four things to give you a few instances that you may have a little light to see the exceeding greatness of the power of the Spirit working in you I shall not shew in all respects nor in many as I might but onely in a few I will instance in these three or four things As first
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
you that profess your selves to be Saints that you would make To repair to this refuge towards this refuge or this garison here in all your troubles I am ashamed and troubled and have been truly many yeers to see Saints and godly people when troubles come on them to spend their wits and beat their brains in finding refuge in outward things O if I were here or there in such a Town in such an Iland in such a Country in such a place I should have it Beloved our song should be Salvation God will appoint us for walls and bulwarks Our way is when all the Kingdoms of the world are shaken to seek to get into that Kingdom that shakes not That is let England and all the world shake I care not so I have the Spirit of Christ the comforter to bring peace to my soul that may set up a garison there that nothing may assault and trouble me Then let all the world let heaven and earth shake I am sure I am safe this is the way It is a common saying of many particular persons Let a man not seek himself any where without in the opinion of men So let not Saints seek refuge and shelter and salvation in outward helps but if they should see the Kingdom of England which God forbid involved in more miseries and troubles and desolations c. Lay this down alway by thee there is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken England and Scotland and Ireland are shaken but there is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Such a garison is besieged such a Town is in danger such a place is stormed but there is a garison that the Lord hath put into the hearts of his Saints that cannot be stormed or assaulted Therefore ply the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of the New Testament by his holy comforter that he would garison thy soul and put peace there And then what shall be the issue I will tell thee that thou with a holy joy and complacency and delight of Spirit when thou seest the very pillars of heaven shaken as it were shalt sollace thy self in thy own garison and walk in the streets of it and be safe thou shalt triumph over all storms and troubles and all that is here Not because that a Saint is able to encounter those things that are here For a Saint is not able to answer if you ask what he conceives will be the end of these things he cannot answer these things but onely he retreats to the middle Region as a bird he flies above sublunary things he can say I cannot tell what shall become of England or Scotland or Ireland but I am sure I know a back door that leads into a Kingdom that cannot be shaken to go into the middle Region where no storms of the Air shall trouble me and there I can rest my spirit I alway for my part with submission to the wise apprehend it as a thing too carnal and too low for Saints to think to finde a resting place in this world any place is heaven in such an Iland in such a Plantation and such a place let it be what it will But a Saint that hath this garison in his heart and minde he is at peace This garison David had when his enemies compassed him and he had no walls when there were 10000 about him he lay and slept For thou Lord sustainedst me saith he The salvation of God was walls and bulwarks about him If this peace of God be above understanding how can it be otherwise then be above expression We can therefore give but a hint of it but such a thing there is The Saints walk in a green meadow by the rivers of waters Psal 23. in the spring all the day and all the night long in beholding the love of God and the Covenant of God made in Iesus Christ the full forgivenesse of all their sins the everlasting union between them and Christ and through Christ between them and God and beholding the Spirit in its working within them and beholding the glory that shall be revealed at the last day the Crown that Christ shall bring with him they walk safely and sweetly and securely though all the Kingdoms of the world and the pillars of heaven be shaken As the heathen said If the world break about his ears he would undergo it without trouble Not because he can answer these things but withdrawing himself to his place from them I cannot tell whether the Kingdom shall stand but I can go to the middle Region to Iesus Christ where there is no storme Learn that and lay aside your great projects like the men of the world of building Castles in the air for Garisons but labour to get into this Garison Salvation will God appoint for walls and Bulwarks Open ye the gates that the righteous Nation which keepeth the truth may enter in This is a speech just alluding to a Garison they use there to open the gates and to shut them and when any body comes they bid them stand and ask them who they are for What are they One saith he is a friend and then they bid open the gates and let him come in if not to shut the gates against him Open ye the gates saith the Lord But none must come in but a friend but who is this friend It is The righteous Nation which keep the truth they shall enter in The word in the Originall it is Truth not Truth not one or two or three or four truths but the righteous Who have a right to Gods protection Nation that keepeth the truths let them enter in That is the word if you will passe this Court of Guard he that shall come into this Garison is he that keepeth truth with a good conscience notwithstanding all the troubles that befall him in this world he shall enter into this Garison Therefore I beseech you look to your selves Truly it is unconceiveable and unutterable what the joy the comfort the worth of that Garison is where it is set up in the soul yet there are no hypocrites no partiall obeyers of Iesus Christ and his laws that shall enter into it Therefore if I speak Hebrew or Greek as it were to you that you understand not what I mean by this Garison look to your selves it may be you have not the word and therefore you cannot get in It may be you walk not uprightly you are not of the upright Nation and people you keep not the truths It may be you pick one truth here and another there that pleaseth you that suits with your reason or your lusts and corruptions or with the stream of the world you honor and respect that and for the rest of the truth let you neighbours take it if they will you will none of it if it bring shame and persecution and reproch That is the reason when troubles come you are at your wits end you know not where to go because
weak soul hath the testimony of Gods spirit that he walks uprightly in his family before the Lord but if he fall into the company of spirituall Christians that are full of the Spirit full of the Holy Ghost he comes home proclaiming himself an hypocrite all the way as he goes Do not that for God hath cast it so that the first shall be last and the last shall be first therefore though I be weak who knows but that God may make me equall to that glorious Saint Therefore as he is not to be secure and proud so I am not to be discouraged Fourthly learn also this lesson for it is of especiall use in these times for this is the age when old professors 4. Not to judge others set themselves to sleep learn hence not to judg of Christians old Christians old professors to be hypocrites because that they have taken a napp I may not think that that man whom I have known to be the first man for Religion of all the Iustices of the Peace of all the Gentlemen in the country of all the ministers in the County because he is now the least and last of all the gentry or ministery or the like I may not aâ— the ordinary fashion of men is conclude that there is no grace in him It is an ordinary thing among us you have instances every where in this case but rather conclude this that many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first God hath put the one against the other that we should finde nothing after him God delights in variety of works and he hath cast it so that ordinarily professors should be like the Angels or Iacobs ladder some up and some down the young going before the old and the old coming behinde the young and as souldiers in training wheele about and go behinde one another God in wisdom hath done so therefore I wil not say such a Magistrate or such a minister or such a Gentleman doth not belong to God because he is not so good as he hath been he was once the best and now he is the least he may be the Lords notwithstanding all this We must remember this or else we shall make hypocrites of all the world for there is no Christian but hath his failings and if we conclude so then God will have no Saints It is a blessed meanes of meekning the heart towards napping Christians Then lastly let there be a kind of equality and spirituall 5. To preserve a correspondencie and equality correspondencie between all Saints O that God would have it so that as the younger should not carry themselves unreverently to the elder so the elder should not despise the younger but as there was an equality in their gathering of Mannah they that had much had nothing to spare and they that had little had no want so the Lord delights in equality among the Saints God hates to see Christians that have much knowledge to brow-beat weak Saints God hates it Let us love a kinde of equality and spirituall correspondencie For we are all one body and have all one head the greatest member cannot say to the toe I have no need of thee the greatest Christian if he be as an eye in the head he cannot say that he hath not need of the weakest Saint there is something that may do him good if he could see it To end this I will give you the expression of Calvin on Rom. 16. 16. Salute one another with an holy kiss the Churches of Christ salute you The observation of Master Calvin upon this place is this that the Apostle had before saluted a great many strong Saints by name and commended them for some excellencies one for one thing another for another Priscilla and Aquila as helpers in Christ and such a one for such a thing he gives commendation now because he names not all least the weak should be offended therefore saith the Apostle salute one another with a holy kisse It was their manner before their supper they had feasts of love and before their feasts of love they did alway salute one another with an holy kisse they kissed one another and it was a Ceremony that God appointed to this end to shew that there was a kinde of equality between all the Saints that the poorest could not be kept at a distance from the rich and the youngest Saint that the other day was a drunkard or whoremonger was not to be despised but was kissed of the old So that kiss linked them together that though there was difference yet this kisse levelled them Beloved how far this ceremony should be practised by us or we are bound to it is more then I can tell or any that I know but that is signified by it holds that there should be a blessed correspondencie between all the Saints and some kinde of way whereby a man that is in Christ be he never so weak may know that Christ accepts him that the greatest Saint and most glorious on earth accepts him also And not as the factious custome of disputing professors is that never take notice of but scorn hundreds of poor Saints that have not those gifts that cannot talk swelling proud words as Iude saith All that are Christs should be dear to us as they are dear to Christ he loves them alike he paid as much for them as he did for us and God is their father And Christ provided foreseeing the disposition of men in latter times that of all Saints we should take care of the weakest therefore saith Christ to Peter Peter lovest thou me lovest thou me lovest thou me Lord thou knowest all things Well I see thou lovest me as thou lovest me feed my lambs We are to feed the sheep too for Peter was a Sheperd but we are to feed the lambs of Christ especially In Mat. 18. you know what care Christ takes of his little ones he compares young professors to little Children and if any offend one of them it were better that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the Sea If you should see a man in the midst of the Sea with a Milstone about his neck it were a miserable condition so it is a sad condition of high and lofty professors that brow-beat weak Saints that will not correspond or condescend to them of the lower sort O saith Paul who is weak and I am not offended who is offended and I burn not I will say no more of that remember many that are first shall be last Expositions and Observations on LUKE 18. 1. And he spake a parable to them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint I Do finde beloved that now a days the devil hath wondrous designes in the world and truly one of the greatest that I know among us is this that he indeavours to cheat us of the ordinances of God and to bring us from
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
confounded and the Gospel of Christ is not spiritually and rightly and orderly and distinctly planted in us or else we would be more holy and look on sin in another manner then ever and hate the appearance of it and cleave to that which is good These were the Lessons that I thought of from this Scripture Desire God to inlarge them when you come home for Truths use to breed in the soul Therefore the Spirit of God is compared to a Bird the Spirit sate on the waters as the Bird doth on the nest to hatch her yong The Spirit of God with reverence will hatch such truths as this in the hearts of his children that though it be confused and rude in the beginning yet the Lord by his holy Spirit may break it out to a glorious and powerful light to our souls Expositions and Observations on 1 PETER 1. 9 10 11 12. Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently c. Which things the Angels desire to look into THe Apostle speaks of the salvation that Godhath given unto us and Christ hath purchased for us in the New Testament and he saith it is such a glorious salvation that all the prophets in old time they have been groping after it they have spoken much of it but understood little of what they said but spake for our sakes that is principally for us and the very Angels desire to look into that salvation The Apostle sets out the glory of that salvation thus the prophets inquired after it and the angels desire to look into it So the word then briefly is this that The very angels of God they doe earnestly desire to know and understand the mysteries of the Gospell the salvation that God hath given to sinners by the Gospell The Angels are wondrously taken with the knowledg The desire of the Angels after the mysteries of the Gospel of the glorious mysteries of the Gospell True it is for themselves they are not more saved after the manner as men are but yet the glory of it is so great and the glory of God by it that the very angels desire to look into it the Angels study it Now how do they study it Compare this with that Ephes 3. 8 9 10. Vnto me saith the Apostle God hath given this grace that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God c. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God The Angels no doubt know that that we cannot comprehend and they have a great deal of that intuitive knowledg as we say but this I would teach you that the Angels are willing by the Church that is by Gospell preaching by the ordinances of God set up in the Church they are willing to learn and by the help of them to prie into the glorious mysteries of the Gospell Not only the good Angels they are present here Both good and bad Angels that is certain waiting upon the Saints but also the evill angels that is the devills they desire to look into the Gospell they do learn the mysteries of the Gospell by Gospell ordinances by preaching For good and bad Angels are of the same nature by creation though some fell and others did not This mystery of the Gospell was hid from Angels from good and evil Angels And though they know diverse things of God and their own happinesse yet the glorious things of God in the Gospell and New Testament they are content to come down among us and hear and learn of the Church and of the ordinances We are not able to comprehend what senses Angels have or that we shall have when we are gone hence to the Lord. Therefore there are two or three things that we should learn from it Vse 1 Me thinks it should be a generall motive to every one of us to be a little more diligent and carefull to To be diligent hearers of the mysteries of the Gospel hear the mysteries of the Gospel when they are opened to us If angels come down as it were and learn this wisdom by the Gospell who is so great but he should stoop to prie into these glorious mysteries And if the devil though he learn it that he may the more dishonour God by it hearken to every tittle and use of it and improve it how carefull should we be If the good Angels learn though their salvation be not by it but only the glory and the mystery and beauty of it how much more should I hearken whose salvation or damnation it is for ever If the Devil hearken to every doctrine and use that he may dishonour God and hinder my soul how much more should I hearken that I may honour God and resist the devil and save my soul Vse 2 Secondly learn hence another thing that is wisdom and watchfulnesse against Satan Truly the devil To learn Caution against Satan was a gross fool in the times of Popery I mean there was but little preaching therefore he had but little knowledge of the things of the Gospell but as the light of the Gospell grew clear so the devill grew wiser And he hath laid aside all the temptations that he had a hundred yeers ago for he can never catch men that way for the generality and now he hath gotten spirituall temptations for as the Gospell breaks out for the enlightening of the Saints to bring glory to God and save their souls so the Divel gets more light and knowledge whereby he may more dishonour God and damnifie the souls of men The devil is the same now as he was then to dishonour God and damn souls and the way generally is the same to bring men to sin but for the speciall manner of it the devil drives a new trade nothing like as before before it was to invocate angels and dead Saints that was grosse Now you think you are safe because these things are gone but the devil hath got the Spirituall knowledge of every lesson you hear and he knows how to beat you with your own weapons the divel hath temptations on the right hand and on the left now he brings men to be puffed up with spirituall knowledge he hears pretious things in the Gospel and an intelligble man is much taken with notions and the devil takes him that way He sees the doctrine of justification breaking out and it is glorious and men are taken with it therefore in way of thankfulness men shall swagger as the world doth and whereas before they were something like professors even to the world now they shall walk in all loosness and wantonness I say not that all do so but there are some and wo
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
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
own mercies as Ionah saith to imbrace some lust or other either to imbrace the world or to fall to wantonness or drunkenness or any thing else and so to bargain as Esau that sold all his blessed title in the new Testament and in Jesus Christ for a mess of pottage Beware of that prophaneness for prophaneness is not onely when men commit gross evils as we say but this is a prophane man though he be a Professor and walk civilly that though but in his heart is willing to exchange the blessed estate that God hath called him to for the best happiness in the world There are many prophane men that are not whoremongers and drunkards but are ready every day if the devil come to cheapen to give up their birthright for a mess of pottage Take heed you sell it not if you did understand it rightly you would not sell it for ten thousand worlds that condition and happiness that God hath called you to All the things in the world that can be presented to you are nothing to the peace of the Kingdom of heaven be they what they will in themselves and yet you hanâ—er after ambition or lusts or somewhat and go sell your birthright for a root of bitterness for a mess of pottage for base things I say and I am sure there is no Saint here that knows what the happiness of a Christian in the new Testament is but will say so that all the glory and riches and happiness in the world is no more in comparison of the riches and happiness of a man estated in Christ in the new Testament then a mess of pottage is compared with an inheritance Therefore beware of it desire the Lord to deliver you from a prophane heart Thirdly here is another Use that the Apostle 3. To encourage weaklings makes of it therefore this should encourage poor weak Professors that are every day ready to faint Wherefore saith he lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees and make strait steps to your pathes least that which is lame go out of the way The meaning is poor souls that are beaten out as it were as a ship in the sea all the week with temptations and afflictions and injuries and reproaches and threatnings and persecutions that their hands almost fall that they are ready to say as David I have washed my hands in innocencie in vain This is the way to keep up thy spirit Labor as Paul prays Phil. 1. to know the riches of thy calling to understand the glorious condition that God hath called thee to here I speak not of that in heaven hereafter but the glorious estate here if thou hadst eyes to see it and a heart to judg of it then you would not be so tormented all the week long with a few temptations and afflictions and so be ready to give up as David said I shall one day perish by the hands of Saul so I shall one of these short days prove an hypocrite a prophane man I am so haunted with temptations and so followed with sins and lusts No beloved study that blessed estate what Mount Sion what the heavenly Ierusalem is that City of the living God that God hath called you to and that will support thee Then that I may conclude Lastly this is the use 4. To study peaceableness the Apostle would have us make of it to follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see see God That is if you do understand aright your spiritual condition the happiness of it which is unspeakable then surely you will be peaceable people you will be at peace with all men for this is a general truth to me that our frowardness doth generally arise from some distemper of our own souls within I mean when a man sees that God is angry with him he is angry with others that is certain alway if God look strangely upon him he will look strangely upon others if God quarrel with him he will quarrel with others but if God smile upon the soul and shed his love into the heart and set his love upon him he will not be angry with any that are without I mean with a carnal anger that is the reason that when a mans ways please God the stones of the street shall be at peace with him Did you ever see the stones of the street angry with you but the meaning is when a mans ways are cross with God and he hath a guilty conscience a guilty soul hath no true peace he is ready almost to fall out with the stones in the street he quarrels with his servant with his horse with every thing because he hath an unquiet spirit within when a man pleaseth God the stones shall be at peace with him that is he shall be at peace with every thing Why so because there is an infinite unspeakable quiet in his own soul That is the reason we have so many Professors among us that are so bitter and cruel to others some they call Presbyters and some Independents and divers other Professors you may pick them out in every Congregation that are so sharp and terrible to others if they cross them or dissent from them never so little What is the reason because there are abundance of Professors that have one foot on Mount Sinai they walk by the Covenant of Works they have patched a feined rotten peace in them with God in Christ and so many times there is blackness and darkness within therefore they are ready to wrangle and quarrel with others without But God hath called us to Mount Sion where is that where the swords are turned into Pruning hooks and the speares into Ploughshares sighing and sorrow is gone away and there is no ravenous beast there meaning the glorious estate of the Saints in the purity of the light of the Gospel all our ravenous spirits shall be taken away for it is impossible that soul that hath the love of God shed into it and the peace of God rightly planted in it it is impossible but that soul should be milde and calm and meek and merciful and loving and courteous to all and be at peace with all and peaceable to all And for holiness Follow holiness saith the Apostle this would make you holy if you did understand your condition rightly O if you were perswaded that God did love you from eteruity and that his Son did die for you and that you and he are as really one as he is one with his Father and that all the treasures that are in Christ are yours c. this would inevitably work in us a holy frame of heart and disposition Therefore the Apostle usually calls on us to be holy from such motives I beseech you by the mercies of God and by the consolations of the Spirit do this and that and leave that and the other evil That is the reason we are lame in holiness because our principles are so