Savior in the Heavenly Beauty and Glory of his Person if we have been carryed on to this Work by his Spiritual Appearances and Power in us then wil not our work be at an end til we see him shining forth in the ful Glory of his Person and Spirit not upon us only but upon the whol Earth The Vow of Christ is upon us not to give sleep to our Eyes til we have found a setled Habitation for our Lord Jesus as he is cloathed with al his Spiritual Glories in our own hearts and with men I have done now with the last Evidence of the Presence of our God with us in the New way of his Son and Spirit which Evidence is this That the Spirit of Grace hath been the Principle and Seal of these great Works and Changes in the midst of us The Vse that I would make of it is to enlarge us in our Praises that we may now see and say with joy The Lord Jesus goes up on high in our Land he carries Captivity captive he gives Gifts to men even to the rebellious that himself may dwel among them I have done with the First Vse Vse 2. A Caution to beware of four things Caut. 1. Limit not God This was the sin of the Jews in the Wilderness They limited the Holy One of Israel Psal. 7. 41. Princes love not to be prescribed much less doth God To what will ye liken God and to what likeness wil ye compare him Es. 40. 18. If the Lord be doing Great things among us according to the Exaltation of Christ if he doing New things according to his own Spirit what measure will ye take what President wil ye make what likeness wil ye frame of his Way by things past or present Take heed of Two Wayes of Limiting God First Shut not the Lord up into any Form or way of Working The Holy Ghost complains of the Jews Psal. 78. 19. They spake against God they said Can God furnish a Table in the Wilderness Let us take heed that the Language of our hearts and actions be not like to this that we say not If we have no set Form no Establisht way of Religion or Civil Government Can God in the Wilderness and Confusion of such a Condition continue or encrease Truth Holiness Prosperity and Peace Thus to limit God is to speak against him Secondly Shut not God out of any Form or Way of working I speak here of the Lords Working in Love not Wrath and accordingly of those Forms and Waies out of which he hath not excluded his Love by the contrariety between them and his Divine Holy Nature Nathaniel himself had like to have stumbled at Christ by his narrow-sightedness in this kind Can said he any good come out of Nazareth John 1. 46. Yet as Chrysostom tels us Nazareth signifies a flower Christ out of Nazareth was Flos è Flore a Flower out of a Flower That form or way which seems to thee most uncapable of having any good in it may be made by God a Sweet and flourishing flower out of which another more glorious flower may spring even Jesus Christ in the spiritual Civil and natural Image of things This is the first Caution Caut. 2. Murmure not against the Lord When Jesus Christ had sent this marke of his being come to John Baptist That To the poor the Gospel was preached or as some read it and the Greek ful as wel bears it The poor preach the Gospel he ads and blessed is he that is not offended at me Matt. 11. 5 6. How apt are men to murmure against to stumble at to reject Jesus Christ himself even then when he comes with glad tydings with peace and glory from the Father in the Gospel if the way by which he conveighes these things to them answer not their imagination and expectation but be in any kind poor obscure and dis-esteemed There are two Cases in which we are apt to be ensnared in this kind First The Jews had setled their expectation of the Messiah upon the Pompe and Power of an outward Kingdom He comes with his cross instead of a Throne They therefore are offended at him reject and persecute him So men generally fix the accomplishment of promises the answer of prayers the works of God the administration of Christ the operations of the Spirit in Religion and Civil things upon some way that is fairest in their fancyes or understandings If God come not to bless them and to save them in this way but by some other Person or Thing which is without comliness in their Eye they murmur and refuse him Secondly When the Soldiers had our faviour in their hands they put a Crown of Thornes upon his head a Reed for a Scepter into his hand a purple robe upon his back then they mock him and spit in his Face I humbly pray that this spirit be not powerful in us who profess our selves Saints and peace-makers that we do not after the same manner when the Lord makes any person or way which we have a low esteem of to be the instrument of his power Majesty and love cloath it with the most contemtuous disguises of Hypocrisie delusion Ambition Licentiousness falshood Atheisme and then spit in the Face of it persecute it with al bitterness and scorne under this Disguise Cant. 3. Judg not things by the outward apperance but by the inward principle Solomon saith Al the waies of a man are clean in his own eyes but the Lord weigheth the spirit Prov. 16. 2. I have heard of a blind man who could distinguish and judg of al mettals or precious stones by weighing them in his hand Thus judg alwaies not by the beauty of the outward forme but by the weight of the inward pinciple It was a Starr in the Region of the Ayre above the Earth that led the wise men to the House where Christ was borne So should it be the light of a principle in the spirit above the outward form by which we should be gvided in our esteem affections and pursuits Cant. 4. Judg every principle in the Light of the Holy Spirit Psal. 73. 16 17. Asaph professeth that it was too painful for him to understand things in this world by their outward Appearances until he went into the Sanctuary of God then he understood the end by discovring the principle or beginning Before this he was Foolish and Ignorant as a beast vers. 22. The Sanctuary was a Figure of our Savior in his Holy Spirit Agur Complaines Prov. 30. 2 3. That He was more brutish than any man and had not the understanding of a man He gives the reason of this because He had not learned Wisdom which is the Knowledge and judgment of things in their inward principles and he was without this wisdom for want of the Knowledge of the Holy This expression of the Holy in Scripture signifies Glorified Natures in Heaven somtimes whether Angels or Saints somtimes Saints on Earth Whatever
and peculiar piece of work in which he is to be served he fils men with a strange unwonted vigor in his business to contrive attempt and execute wonderful things To this end as a man puts fire under a pot so he sends forth his Spirit after a new manner into their Hearts that they boyl and run over they are no more in their own power they can no longer contain themselves Such a Description as this David makes of himself Psal. 39. 1. I said I will take heed to my wayes that I sin not with my tongue I will keep my mouth as with a Bridle while the wicked are in presence I was dumb with silence I held my peace from good my sorrow was stirred My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned then spake I with my tongue David and Christ in him were opprest by wicked men He resolves to suffer in silence and to suppress all Motions towards the outward advancement of Goodness At length the Word of the Lord comes to him first it warms his heart by degrees it grows hotter while he museth upon it is irresolute unwilling to come forth openly upon the Stage it becomes a fire it breaks forth burns out like a mighty and irresistable flame You have an Example like to this in St. Paul Acts 20. 22. And behold now I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem c. God had a new and great work for St Paul to do to testifie to the Gospel of Christ by preaching and by sufferings at Jerusalem the chief City of the Jews at Rome the Head City of the World before Rulers and Princes And now though afflictions and death were Manifestly before his Eyes in this journey though friends Saints Prophets his own heart lay Weeping Bleeding Breaking in his way to stop him from going on in that course from whence he should returne no more as ye may see verse 23. 25. 27 28. Chapter 21. verse 4. 11 12 13. Yet he shuts his Ears and his Eyes to al these treads them under his feet goes over them al Would you know the reason He was bound in Spirit An extraordinary power of the Spirit came upon him bound up al his facultys in its heavenly chaines and carryed him Captive to its Divin Force and Wil. There are many witnesses that the like unto this hath been heard known and felt often in our daies and affaires Supernatural Impressions Divine and Irresistible Impulsions as gales of wind from Heavem have filled the Spirits affections counsels and actions of men like sails by which the ship of this Common-wealth hath bin carryed on from port to port from change to change When the two disciples wer going to Emaus Jesus Christ in the midst of them they said did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us but their Eyes were held that they could not know him If Jesus Christ have been in the midst of us as a fire if he have made the hearts of his Servants to burn within them yea to flame forth to lick up all the water of opposition to consume all the Damps of Discouragement that have been cast upon this fire from their own reason reputation affections purposes former principles within from difficulties dangers disswasions of friends combinations of of Enemies without Shal our Eyes stil be held that we should not know him who is thus a burning and shining Light among us or shal our spirits be held from rejoycing and dancing in this Light while its season lasteth Fiftly The Inward Principle of Life being the Seal upon our Outward Changes 2 Tim. 2. 16. Nevertheless the Foundation of the Lord standeth sure having this Seal the Lord knoweth who are his And let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity This word Nevertheless implies a tacite Objection arising from the foregoing words of the Apostle verse 17 18. Hymeneus and Philetus of eminent Beleevers and Preachers of the Gospel were become Hereticks whose words did spread and kil like a Gangrene insomuch that they had overthrown the saith of some Now might a poor Saint say Good God! what way is there to attain to a sound and saving Faith which cannot be overthrown or when shal I know that my Faith is thus sound and saving Who can be sure of their Faith that it shal not fail them when it hath failed these The Apostle gives two Answers to this Objection First The Foundation of the Lord standeth sure God the Father of our Lord Jesus makes himself in the hearts of his Children to be a sure Foundation unto their Faith so that it can never be shaken This Foundation he layeth in the fair colors of his own Spirit of a mystical and peculiar Union in the Spirit of an especial work of Grace flowing from this Union Secondly This sure Foundation at the bottom of our hearts and faith is also the Seal of Assurance upon them both Having this Seal the Lord knoweth who are his In Spiritual things that which is the Life is the only Light which is therefore so called in the Gospel the Light of Life the Principle is the Seal Ye mere sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise faith St. Paul Ephes. 1. That Light of Knowledg which is Originally the Knowledg of the Lord in us that Communicatively by Vertue of the Union is our Knowledg and this Knowledg is our Seal As in Natural things the Eye sees not alone neither doth the Soul but both concur in every act of sight So is it in every act of Spiritual Sence The Spirit of the Lord witnesseth together with our Spirits saith St. Paul Rom. 8. The Spirit of the Lord and our Spirit like the Soul and the Eye joyntly concur in every act of Spiritual Knowledg The Lord knoweth in us we know in the Lord that we are his Thus this Union which is the Principle of Life in us is in like manner the Seal of Light Object The world hath often objected to the servants of the Lord in the great Works of our times You plead inward Principles Power and Light for your Justification in extraordinary waies that it is from the fervency of your spirit in the Service of the Lord and of the publick welfare How shal we know this that you do not Cloath contrary designes and corrupt interests with these pretences how can we or you tel that your impressions are not delusions Answ. What hath the answer been Hath it not been that of Jesus Christ to the Jews when they refused to mourne to his weeping or to dance to his Musick Wisdom is justified of her Children Matth. The Lord Jesus as he is by his spirit the Power of God in us from which we act and on which we stand as on a sure Foundation So is he in like manner the Wisdom of God in us by which we know him and his out-goings by which we are also known of him and owned by him This
answer to the Light within But where you see Persons while they profess themselves to be Saints changing all having nothing of the same Nature or Rellish left there is great reason to fear that this is not the Newness of the Spirit but the Wildness of the Flesh not the freshness and variety of the living Spring but the Endless turnings and windings of the old Serpent But to return now and to shew you how this Scripture which hath occasioned this short stay by the way makes good that Doctrine which we have in hand All the way of Jesus Christ in the Saints and in the World for the sake of the Saints is after the newness of the spirit It follows then that it must be it self New and Extraordinary Another Scripture compared with this wil make the Proof from both more strong and cleer Es. 43. 18 19 20 21. Remember ye not the former things neither consider ye the things of Old Behold I will do a new thing now it shall spring forth shall ye not know it I will even make a way in the Wilderness and Rivers in the Desart The Beast of the field shall honor me the Dragons and the Owls because I give Waters in the Wilderness and Rivers in the Desart to give drink to my People my Chosen This People have I formed for my self they shall shew forth my praise There are Four Things to be taken notice of in these words First The Deliverance of the Jews from the Babylonians is the proper subject of this Prophesie in the Letter of it as you shal see at verse 4. This Deliverance from the Babylonians is made in Scripture universally a Type of every Deliverance of the People of God from the Powers of Darkness and of this world but more particularly of the Deliverance of the Church in the last daies from Antichrist which is Spiritual Babylon Secondly In this Deliverance the Lord laies aside all Presidents every old Form and Custom he works a New thing What is this New thing He makes a Way in the Wilderness and Rivers in the Desart These Expressions look backward by way of Allusion to the Coming of the Children of Israel out of Egypt when the Lord made a way for them through the Wilderness going himself before them in the Pillar of a Cloud and of Fire and gave them Rivers of Water from the Rock which followed them in the Desert But this Literal Sense is not that which the Lord here intends For this had been no New thing but had only brought the former things to remembrance by the Imitation and Re-iteration of them Therefore the words look forward to an Allegorical and Mystical accomplishment in the times of the Gospel We all know that Jesus Christ is frequently held forth in the Gospel as the Way John 14. 6. He cals himself The Way Heb. 10. 20. He is said to be the New and Living Way by the rending of the Vail of his Flesh and the raising of him up again in the Spirit In like manner it is an Evident thing that the Spirit of Christ in the Gospel is resembled to Rivers of Water as John 7. 38. Out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of Living Water ver. 39. This spake he of the Spirit This then is the New thing which the Lord doth He turns the outward face of things in Church and Common-wealth into a Wilderness puts al into Confusion that no humane Eye can see any way either forward or backward Then he comes forth with new extraordinary appearances in Christ as the Pillar of a Cloud burying all the Light and Life of the Creature in the Darkness of Christs Death as a Pillar of Fire shining and sparkling forth with a New Light and Heat from the Glory of his Resurrection These Extraordinary Appearances in Christ the Lord makes his way in which he walks and into which he leads his People to walk with him in his wonders through the Churches and the Nations When the Spirit of man becomes a Desert like a winter-brook that is passed away and decives the expectation of the weary Traveller all Springs of Wisdom Counsel Help Comfort in the Creature are dryed up then the Lord comes forth in mighty and miraculous workings after the Newness of the Spirit in the fresh flowings of that and makes it to be as Rivers in the Desert Rivers have these Properties First They are from a Living Spiring Secondly They flow along with a great breadth depth and force Thirdly They flow continually running along still with a fresh succession of New waters from the Head of the River Fourthly They make all things cheerful and flourishing round about them So doth the Lord in the Desert of the Creature put forth himself by his Spirit with an irresistable force an uncessant Newness with a quickness of life a breadth and depth of design from the immediate Fountain of the God-head Thirdly It is observable here that the Saints are they who peculiarly drink of these Rivers They have the immediate inward sence Strength Joy Glory the cheif ends and benefit of these Out-goings of the God-head But natural men signified by the Beasts of the field the powers of this world yea the most ignorant and unbeleeving that sit in the greatest darkness which are as the Owles Nay more than that the Dragons the profanenest and wickedest persons both Princes and Stats who have the greatest enmity to Christ and his Church al these shal acknowledg and give glory to the Lord in these Miraculous workings of his from Heaven partly for the greatness of the Conviction by the presence and cleerness of the Appearances of God in the midst of them before their Eyes as is signified verse 19. Now it shal spring forth shal ye not see it partly for the relife and the refreshing which shal be extended to them also in their natural Man and civil affayres For so it is said verse 20. They shal honor me because I give waters in the wilderness c. Fourthly The end of al this is for the Saints that they may be formed and wrought up to God to Spirituality and Heavenlyness to his Likness to one Image and Nature with him to the Immediate enjoyment of him to his Bosom his Throne there to raigne with him from thence as chosen Vessels to carry forth the Praises of God in the Gospel of his Love his Righteousness his Holyness his Beauties his Joys his Glorys into the Nations that the Saints may be as a Holy first-fruits and the Nations as a sanctified Lump through them This people have I formed for myself to shew forth my praise Verse 21. I have now finished the two Arguments for the making good of the Doctrine one taken from the Person and Office of Christ the other from the Influences and Operations of the Spirit as both Christ and the Spirit are in the Newness of the highest and most Evangelical Glory as both stand in relation first to the Church then
when he pours out a Spirit of Grace upon his people Secondly He alwaies and more especially when he is seeking the ruine of his enemies joynes these two a Spirit of Grace and of Supplication Are there not many that can testifie by their own experience concerning the works of these times that the Heart of God in a Spirit of Grace hath bin let down into the Bosom of his beloved ones that thus their hearts have bin by a Spirit of Supplication drawn up into the Bosom of God and have drawn forth these deliverances from the Wells of Salvation there These Wells are Deep the Deep things of God his Love his Wisdom his Righteousness his power his Glory as these lie in the very depths of his Essence and Divine Nature But Saints have had their Buckets their Hearts to draw with and a line a Spirit of Supplication long and sure enough to let down their hearts into these deep Wels of Salvation which are in the Heart of God These Wells are stil ful of living Waters and these Buckets are stil going Saints keep your expectiations stil fresh Secondly The spirit of Grace is a spirit of Prophecy Esai 43. 9. God challengeth al the Nations Let them bring forth their witnesses who among them can shew us former things that is things before they come to pass or things before their times before the world by a spirit of Prophesie Verse 12. I have declared and have saved and I have shewed when there was no strange God among you therefore ye are my witnesses saith the Lord that I am God Hath not the Lord many Witnesses in these Nations yea here present I know he hath In the former daies when ye were with him at your Banquets of spiritual enjoyments on your Bed of spiritual Loves then did he by his spirit before hand signifie within you the snfferings of these times and the Glory which hath risen out of them And as he hath declared so hath he saved us by the same Spirit And now tel me ye that are the Lords witnesses when ye are in your holyest seasons when there is no strange God or Love but Jesus Christ alone shines in the midst of your spirit doth he not stil shew you greater things than these which are yet to come Thirdly The spirit of Grace is a spirit of Holiness Ephes. 1. 13. It is called a Holy spirit Ye were sealed with the Holy spirit of Promise Holiness is the Character and Seal of that spirit of Grace which is promised to the Saints Psal. 99. 8. Thou answeredst them O Lord our God thou wert a God that forgavest them though thou takest Vengeance of their iniquities The Lord testified his presence with the Jews in the Wilderness by his Holiness in taking Vengeance of their Inventions There is a Three fold Vengance which the Lord takes for Sin First On the Persons and this three waies 1. By Casting them off for ever 2. By Cutting of the inward Beams of spiritual Communion between himself and them for a season perhaps for al their life long 3. By Clouding their outward Man with trouble and sorrow God alwaies pardons iniquity to the Persons of his Children in respect to the first of these Vengances He cannot give them over or cease to love them sometimes also in respect to the second and third He continues the sweetness of their Communion with him and the Serenity of their natural comforts un-interrupted Secondly The Second Vengance for sin is on the publike Cause Thus the Lord did forgive the Israelites in the Wilderness and not take Vengeance on the publike Cause For though they al died in the desert yet the Lord kept his cause a live carryed that Victoriously over Jordan into the Land of Canaan and planted it to grow there for many generations The Third Vengance on the Inventions on the Corruptions and Idols of the Heart In this sense the Lord never pardons any The Spirit which hath bin our guide hath Signally declared it self a Spirit of Grace by its abundant Forgivenesses and a Spirit of Holiness by the Vengance which it hath taken for Sin When any have risen up against him his Purity his Progress from the Enmity of the Serpent he hath made the Earth to open and swallow them up into the darknesses below by a Natural or Civil Death he hath made fire to come down from Heaven a spiritual fire of Divine judgement and wrath by which they have bin so withered dryed and burnt up that they have lost al that Greenness of Religion Honor Honesty Morality Natural light which they seemed before to have and have fallen to open Perfidiousness to ranting Profanenesses to a reprobate Sense a stupid Atheisticalness But when the Children of the Kingdom have transgressed by temptations of Covetousness Ambition Fleshliness Passion Delusions Spiritual Pride have fallen to Murmurings Divisions Sensuality Worldly Designs although this Spirit may have pardoned all this to their Persons hiding them in the cleft of the Rock in the wounds of Christ there preserving their Outward their Inward Life and Peace while he hath passed by yet hath he taken open Vengeance of their Inventions by manifest eminent Disappointments in their Expectations and endless confusions in the way of their Designs Yet all this while hath the Holy Spirit pardoned the sins of all Parties to the Cause He hath not suffered that to fall but hath gone on when it seems to faint renewing its strength carrying it up on high as on an Eagles wing enlarging it in Victory Peace Spiritual Liberties at home spreading its Branches over the Seas and to Forraign far distant Lands breaking the Head of the Leviathan the chief strength of Antichrist in the deep Waters Fourthly The Spirit of Grace is a Spirit of Vnity Ephel 4. 3. Endeavoring to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Vnity is the Character the most immediate and inseparable Property of the Spirit The Bond of Peace hath its strength and root in the Vnity of the Spirit as the Sympathy and Vnion of all the Fellow members in the Body arise from and is preserved by One Soul by the Vnity of the Soul There is a Twofold Vnity First of Inward Affection Secondly of Outward Effect As to the Latter of these I had rather much speak in silent Groans to God than by words to men bleed inwardly than breath forth outward Complaints for the Breaches of the Daughter of my People But so far as concerns the First of these the Inward Affection to Vnity let me call forth you who have the Testimony in your selves that it hath been the Spirit in the Living Creatures in the Hearts of the Saints quickened by the Life of Christ which hath been in the Wheels that have turned about and carried on this whol work from the beginning hitherto I appeal to you What are the Meltings the Weepings over the Divisions among the Saints What Yearnings and turnings of Bowels after a