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
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
Lord of Hosts which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working What is the meaning of that That that made the Prophet cry out that the Lord was wonderful in Counsel and mighty in working it was this to see the harmony between Gods Works in his Books and in his Creatures O who would think when a man is plowing that there were such a mystery there that he should fetch a glorious mystery in afflicting his Saints from a little Cummin This also is from the Lord of Hosts which is wonderfull in counsell and excellent in working that he reveales his blessed will in his book and gives such a glorious copy of it in the creatures that we may understand the one by the other Thus have I shewed you a little of the meaning of the word of God in this Chapter as I understand Expositions and Observations on ISAIAH 40. 1. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith your God YOu shall finde that in the Scriptures especially Consolation a duty in the New Testament we are commanded to comfort one another as much as to exhort and more then to reprove It is very ordinary Comfort one another Though the other duties to the Saints in the New Testament are full of consolation The Apostle from every argument would have us draw comfort from the coming of Christ and every thing almost There are these four things that I shall speak of Four things hinder Consolation that hinder the consolation that might be in your souls If I take away those hinderances it is as much as if I did positively comfort Im ∣ pediment First The first is I will not say you want faith but you have a faith of the Law and not of the Gospel You believe in God but not in Christ My meaning is this your saith is begotten and bred according to the doctrine and principles of the Old Testament It is good and true but it is bred and nourished according to the principles and strain of the Old Testament which old Testament saith the Apostle is done away You need not stumble you know my meaning your faith is not yet come clearly according to the strain and course and frame of the New Testament You will say There is but little difference between the old and the New Testament Look how they be opposed 2 Cor. 3. Gal. 2. and in the Hebrews that is the main business to shew the difference between the old and New Testament Now that your faith is so it will appear three ways Which appears three ways First there is a Heathenish desire of sanctification of holiness Holiness is a blessed thing and there are none desire more earnestly sincerely to be holy then the Saints in the New Testament Holiness is upon the bridles of the horses of the Church yet there is a desire of holiness in the soul that is legal faith that by the earnest desire of holiness a man may see the frame of his faith to be legal There may be a thirst that ariseth from a Feaverish distemper of body that is not good Therefore truly a man may desire holiness more then happiness as you are wont to express it He may desire holiness and to avoyd sin more then Hell it self and any thing in the world He may say he would not for a world but overcome his lusts and O that I could overcome my frowardness and my pride and yet it may be a Heathenish kinde of thirst I have known people that have gone every day to hear and have wept and desired holiness and yet out of a Heathenish desire of holiness Why what is the meaning of this how comes this about The soul resolving to be justified and to finde favor with God partly by the righteousness of Christ and partly by some grace not that it hath but that it hopes to have Therefore the soul as a Feaverish man reacheth out and layes down this conclusion I must be holy and there are some things if I could reach them then I should be well and so the Feaver grows higher and higher And God crosseth him for it is against the way of the Gospel God will do no good to us if we go contrary to his glory Therefore if we weep our hearts out we shall not have it for it is a designe of our own saith God You will not be content with the righteousness of Christ but you will have something to make it up you will believe and be holy but you shall go my way or not at all Now a Saint that is according to Gods minde first upon believing in Jesus Christ and his righteousness his soul is fully satisfied and he is at peace He saith Lord whether I be holy or not I see a full righteousness in Jesus Christ to justifie me and to sanctifie me and pacifie my conscience And Lord here I am Thou knowest that I have nothing but my old nature thou art wise all my sins are done away do with me what thou wilt If thou wilt put me to pain or into poverty or into Hell or suffer me to go in rags all my life long do so As a godly man said If pride and frowardness must have its work though I had rather go to Hell for the time yet here I am I rejoyce in my spirit because I am accepted of thee So here is a desire of holiness but it is not Heathenish as if a man could have no assurance and comfort in his soul till he had gotten such a degree of grace These are Feaverish desires Secondly It appears to me that your comfort is not right that your faith is not according to the Gospel because of the startlings in your conscience after sin That when God suffers the soul to be overtaken and to fall the soul startles that is horror seizeth presently upon the conscience and hardness upon the heart there is a startling that makes a man that he cannot go on in his calling that makes all his neighbors take notice of him as if he were not his own man Take it as a general rule the most and the greatest dangers or the most dangerous errors border nearest on the most glorious light It is blessed to startle at sin and to desire holiness but I say there is a Heathenish desire of holiness and startling at sin that argues That the conscience is not quieted in Christ Object You will say when a Saint falls into sin shall he take no notice of it Answ Yes and have no peace till he have poured out his soul to God But yet as a Son to a Father and his assurance is whole still Thou art my beloved father and all that is befaln me thou hast suffered it and hast a hand in it I confess Father I am an unhappy childe there is never a member of thy Son Christ that thou hast more trouble with then with me there is none of them so vile and so the heart is all wholly poured out
many I will give you but one more that is in the book of Ruth you shall have there a good woman that had two daughters in law her sons were both dead and so she was going to return to her country she was in a strange country with them and she takes her leave of her two daughters Chap. 2. 8. Naomi said to her two daughters in law Go return each to her mothers house the Lord deal kindly with you as ye have dealt with the dead and with me that is they had been kind to her sons and to her for they lived in a strange country now Farwell The Lord grant that you may finde rest each of you in the house of her husband Then she kissed them c. And they said surely we will return with thee to thy people we will go along we will not leave thee No daughters saith she do not so for I cannot bear other children for you to marry as the law was then If I should lie to night with an husband and have children you would not stay so long therefore I pray abide and go not And it is said Orpah kissed her mother in law and lift up her voice and wept and left her but Ruth clave unto her Orpah was perswaded and wept and took her leave but Ruth clave to her and said Intreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee for whether thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge thy people shall be my people and thy God my God Where thou dyest will I die and there will I be buried the Lord do so to me and more also if ought but death part thee and me So I say you see here that when there was a competition a kind of parting then Ruth abiding with Naomi that is called cleaving It is a glorious thing that when the seeming servants The honour of cleaving to Christ of Iesus Christ shall depart from him when there is a division among professors then to be able to cleave to Iesus Christ That you may understand it conceive that in the wayes of Iesus Christ many times there are such times that abundance of hypocrites as well as Saints abide with him they are sometimes still like the waters of Shilo there is no persecution or trouble in them it may be there is a great deal of honour and wealth and riches with them and many times a great party of the world sticks to him but there is a little tripp and step in the ways of godlines when there is a parting when hypocrites like Orpah shall weep and repent and so shall go with Christ no longer if they do one shall loose his friends another his trade another his wife and shall lift up their voices and weep and take their leaves then is the beautie of Christianity and the blessednesse of a Christian to be able to cleave to the Lord in such a time as this is This was the exhortation of the good man Barnabas that he gave to the people as you shall read Acts 11. 22 23. When he was come and had seen the grace of God he was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they should cleave to the Lord. I have oft marvailed with my self why Barnabas that is said to be a good man and full of the Holy Ghost coming as a stranger to a congregation of good people where he saw the grace of God among them why he should choose this and no more but onely pitch upon this exhortation that seeing they were godly and had received the grace of God he should say I have no more to say but this one word understand it well that is that with full purpose of heart you cleave to the Lord. Indeed the reason was as I conceive if you compare it with Chap. 14. 22. Barnabas was a man to whom God had discovered much of the doctrine of Tribulation and persecution that belonged to the Gospell For take notice of it by the bye I look on the people of God liâ—e the servants of God that did go to build the Temple some were appointed to hew stone some to digge them up and some to carry them home some to build them up some to cast accounts and to keep reckoning So the Lord Iesus in his Kingdom no man knows the reason why he cuts out distinct parcells of work to his people and thereupon supplies them with his spirit and reveales truthes to his people some to manage such a thing no man knows the reason God fastens the doctrine of justification upon some that they cannot rest night nor day and one that may be unwilling to die for another point but not for that Another about Church-government Another upon sanctification none knowes why but God fits them for their work by his Spirit according to his blessed will Therefore we should not censure or sleight godly men because our master doth not imploy them about such a work as he doth us It may be my thoughts are upon sanctification anothers upon justification So God cuts out the work as it pleaseth him Now this Barnabas it seemes did not speak much as we read of but he had a mighty apprehension of persecutions and tribulations that the Saints should suffer in this world Therefore in Acts 14. 22. he and Paul confirm the souls of the Disciples exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God In every Sermon as we may say Barnabas had something to strengthen the souls of the people to go thorow tribulation and affliction It may be another Apostle had his Spirit upon another work It may be in reference to this he gave them this exhortation desiring them with full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord As if he had said Now you are in prosperity for so they were and are all ready to hear the Gospell and receive it O saith he but there is a time a coming to trie you and you must not think to run to heaven between two feather-beds but as all the Saints before had their share so every one that will live in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution As there is a Statute in heaven for all men once to die so if you be Saints you must live in tribulation and persecution and that is the way as Christ was made perfect by sufferings so you must come to salvation Therefore when those things come I have not much to say to you but O then remember to cleave to the Lord for then you shall see hypocrites in droves going away from Iesus Christ and leaving him one stumbling at this another at that one is offended at the Crosse that it takes away his credit another for his profit another his liberty another his trading but brethren I beseech you with full purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. See how a company in Iohn 6. with one word
Gods love in Christ in the free Covenant which Covenant consists in such promises which promises speak to me by such ordinances as this and the Lords Supper c. This is a third way Fourthly and lastly the Saints live by faith that is in all afflictions they do bear up their spirits and are supported 4. It is their support in afflictions by the power of faith upon the word though there be nothing seen and appear A naturall man cannot hold up but sink further then there is some sensible visible thing to hold him up but the just those that are Saints they have an art a mysticall art whereby when they see nothing but have a word wherein God hath promised to do this or that for them they can bear up themselves and so go on as chearfully as if they did enjoy or as if they did see their deliverance Thus Habakkuk we read this proverb verse 1 2 3. The vision is for an appointed time in the end it will speak and not lie though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tary Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him but the just shall live by his faith There was a vision that did promise good to this people but this vision must tarry a little it must not be performed presently but they might say how shall we do in the mean while The just shall live by his faith Though there be nothing seen yet notwithstanding they shall bear themselves and carry themselves chearfully and comfortably and contentedly by beholding the truth of the busines and the sweet expectation they have of it as if it were come already You have the proverb repeated by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews in this sense yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry You have need of patience saith the Apostle They were in great afflictions there was a promise that God would help them but what shall we do in the meane while while the grasse grows In the meane while the just shall live by his faith he shall drive on and carry on the work and bear up himself and his spirit and his comfort and all on the word of the Lord and he shall do all this by his faith So that this being the lesson shortly though I be not able yet to clear this fully to you for truly this is a lesson wherein we still shall want light we are not able to see it perfectly it is from faith to faith saith the Apostle That is we come from one degree of faith to another to live by faith there are many kinds many degrees of living by faith Now this is it that I would commend to you and exhort you to that you would seek the Lord and study the Scriptures that you might come to this that you may live by faith First of all in the grosser part of it concerning sanctification that is an easie thing to be understood that you would not regard or weigh any thing in all your profession but what doth come from Iesus Christ by faith Truly much of our Religion is a naturall kinde of Religion and much of that which is like good in us doth not spring from Iesus Christ and whatsoever is not from him will never be accepted by him We have many morall vertues from old Adam that we gild over and account them graces but God loaths them We have many duties that we have taken up in the imitation of others by good education or the power of the letter Preached to us and yet this is not the life of faith it is not holinesse by faith And therefore let us not like many professors study the muchnesse of Religion or the plausiblenesse of it without as that I am able to preach as other preachers do and you are able to pray in a day of humiliation as other professors do this is nothing but let us labour that that little holinesse that is in us may clearly proceed from the Lord Iesus Christ One had better have a Garden of a few true and pleasant Flowers though there be but a few then to have a Garden with some Flowers and a world of trash like Flowers there is no pleasure in it Now I fear that much of thy best duties spring from old Adam much of thy best prayers and much it may be of that Religion whereby thou art accounted a professor much of it I fear is nothing but old Adam and his ruines screwed up and varnished or gilded and not from the Lord Iesus Christ And therefore remember this that as drunkennesse and whoredom and those grosse and scandalous works of darknesse are called dead works so every graine every stamp of good in thee if it be not from the new Adam it is but a dead work I could shew you how you shall know the one from the other but that the time is short and I must not hinder other occasions Therefore I leave that upon your thoughts that you may pray to the Lord Lord I do not care how men conceive of me I care not though I be among the least of all Saints as Paul saith if I be reckoned the least of all Saints so that that little Saint-ship and holinesse that is in me flow from Christ that it be a grace from his grace and light from his light But the other truth is wondrous hard to expresse that we should in respect of justification and assurance learn the Art of living by faith that when the Lord shall take away all comfortable objects of sight and sense that we can see nothing we cannot pray at all we see corruption upon corruption and waves of temptations one upon another and no working within to relieve us that I am able then to live by faith that is to see a righteousnesse in Iesus Christ and to build upon his word and Covenant to hold my self and my assurance still I am a son still everlasting life belongs to me still though I feele and see nothing but hell and something worse if it may be yet notwithstanding I am a Saint and I am righteous and just and the Lord is my father and hath reserved everlasting life for me Beloved the life that Christians ordinarily do live it is a life mingled with faith and sense for if God give me free grace why should not I rejoyce in it If I clearly see the first fruits of the Kingdom of heaven why should I exclude my reason not to conclude that there is more grace behind But there are other Saints that have a mixture of faith and sense that take away sense and their faith is gone their faith is grounded upon sense And I have oft times looked in to my soul and thought why the Lord suffered me to be carryed away with corruptions and to be overwhelmed with temptations whereas he hates these things and I hate them and I weary
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
well as hearers There is one thing more which is here laid down in this Scripture that we must indeavor to do though when I speak of doing when we teach you any spiritual Gospel duty you must understand it in a Gospel way not as though I say we can do this or that but we through the grace of Christ may do any thing that is commanded in the Gospel Therefore go not home and say we are dead and can do nothing c. To what end are all these precepts laid on us but that we by the power of the holy Ghost may do them Therefore I say there is one thing more for us to do before we can come rightly to love the brethren truly there are many things but that that I am now upon is the foundation what is for the building of us up I meddle not with now for till we come to do this we cannot love at all we cannot go one step in this blessed work and that is it I shall indeavor to tell you now saith the Apostle Fulfil my joy and be like minded If there be any consolation in Christ or any comfort of love if there be any fellowship of the Spirit if there be any bowels and mercies The meaning is the Apostle exhorts them to these duties upon these motives to the following duties upon the foregoing motives As if he should say for the consolation sake that you feel in Christ Jesus that is sweet and dear for the comforts sake that you feel when you love how ful your souls are of comfort for the sake of that sweetness and pleasure that you have in the fellowship of the Spirit If there be any bowels of mercy in you any sweetness of the mercy of God in your souls or any workings of mercy or pity or affections in you grant me one desire at which I shall exceedingly rejoyce that is be like minded and have the same love c. The Apostle doth here as it is usually his manner when he exhorts to any thing he tells them not Do this or you shall be damned do this or else you are hypocrites or else the curse of God will fall on you for he carries that clearly in all his Epistles that there is no damnation to them that are in Christ and you are are not appointed unto wrath saith he but he presseth them unto it out of the sweetness and dearness of spiritual things that they apprehended Indeed to press them from arguments of hell or the curse that would have fastned a spirit of bondage on them To press them from worldly things those vanities would never have moved them therefore he takes the choisest things always as Iob saith I spake to my servants and to my wife and she answered not though I besought her for the children of my body that is the dearest thing between man and wife so the Apostle desires them by such things as these by the coming of the Lord Jesus that is the sweetest thing to a Saint saith he by these sweet and dear things I talk not of hell and it is in vain to talk of worldly motives but for the sweetness that is in spiritual things and for that price sake and the dearness that is of them and in them I beseech you grant me this request that is that ye Be like minded and have the same love That is mutual love each to other and be of one accord and of one minde This is the Motive that I Mutual love enjoyned shall open But how shall we come to love one another or to love mutually O saith he Let nothing be done through The means to attain it strife or vain glory but in lowliness of minde let each esteem other better then themselves I told you a man is to lay this as the foundation of his love to love because God loves him not because he is beloved of men Now that he may do so he must lay this also as a general rule in his soul by the grace of Christ that he account himself and lookt on himself as less then any other of the Saints every man must account another better then himself A man must look upon himself nay I say more he must be content that others look upon him as the least Saint or else he will never love his brethren aright Beloved this above all things I finde it may be you finde more to be the greatest enemy to love high-mindedness that you look upon your selves either as the greatest of Saints you think you are some body or else you look upon your selves as of the second form near to the greatest Therefore you shall observe by experience that when you come to love any Saint if you finde that though he love you yet if he love another better and account more of the Image of God in â—â—other then in you you alway account that love no better then hatred you say such a man hates you why so because he loves three or four better then you This is pride of heart in a man he had as lieve a man should hate him as love one Saint in the world better or before him it is a sign of a devillish heart If there be a Saint or two in the Family or a woman or a servant in the Congregation that is more respected then he he thinks such a one doth not love him he concludes I am not beloved There is such a desperate pride as pride is a desperate thing alway in spiritual and in earthly things in the heart of man that makes him so desperate that if he be not loved to the height above all others that he accounts all love hatred You will not be right till you come to this that Paul saith 1 Cor. 15. I am the least of all Saints saith he and 1 Tim. 1. 7. I am the greatest of all sinners you will never be in a right frame in a Gospel frame to love your brethren till when you look on sinners you account your selves the greatest and when you look on Saints you reckon your selves the least Therefore this is a plain short Lesson I mean not to speak much of it but truly it needs a large comment on your hearts it needs a great deal of setting home upon your spirits Therefore let us every one look to our selves in this let us consider our condition my condition that I stand in and yours where you are Is not this the frame of my soul and the disposition of your souls that you never love another nor never esteem anothers love for both go together in a proud heart unless he look principally upon you â—â—â—ve all others Beloved it is much for thee and me if we understand our selves what we are and rightly judge of our selves and our course and how things are really in us and before the eyes of him that searcheth the hearts it is much for me if the poorest Saint give me but a smile or
a good look yet this is our disposition if the Saints do not observe us if one go by and do not observe us in the street and put not off his hat and speak and give us idle visitations when he knows not what to do he loves us not It is a great deal if a Saint do but come over the threshold or look upon me in the street This is that that breeds endless quarrels for they are here put together Strife and Vain glory and the like for thou wilt be alway like the Salamander feeding upon some quarrel for every man naturally hath some one thing that he feeds on principally children feed on one cate more then another and so do men some upon Husbandry some upon Navigation some upon Policy every one upon one thing or other All men have some one thing that carries the stream of their hearts some Professors the very stream of their spirits goes in quarrelling with others they no sooner end a quarrel with one Saint but they begin another they can no more live without jangling and quarrelling and strife then the Salamander can live without fire This is the reason a proud heart therefore can never close with the Saints it cannot be content with a little measure of love from the Saints A Saint if he be as he should be can love though he be not loved and can rejoyce wonderfully if he have the least measure of love from others The Lord make this short word spiritual and powerful to thee and me If this lesson were rightly learned a world of division among the Saints would cease Expositions and Observations on HEBREWES 12. 18 19 20 c. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest And the sound of a trumpet and the voyce of words which voyce they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more For they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a beast touch the mountaine it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake But ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Ierusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels To the general assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and the spirits of just men made perfect And to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven THe Apostle in these words doth compare The old and new Testament compared the old Testament the old Covenant with the new or if you will the estate of the Saints under the old Covenant of Sinai with the glorious estate of the Saints under the new Covenant Therefore he tells them Ye are not come to that mountaine that burned with fire that mountain that might be touched you are not set under the old Covenant that was terrible in which there was nothing but that that was terrible that brought horror upon all that feared God in it but ye are Come to mount Sion to the glorious state in the new Testament and there is nothing but what is amiable and what is beautiful for that is it that I mean to pitch on you shall observe in the description of the Saints in the old Testament under the old Covenant I mean not the Books of the old Testament I suppose you know what I mean in that Proposition I say there was nothing in all Gods administration with them but it was full of terror it was terrible it begat horror in them and there is nothing in the state of a Saint that is rightly setled in the Gospel but what is throughly amiable and beautiful and therefore you shall see how the Apostle reckons them First for the old he saith they were come but to a Mount that might be touched that is an earthly mountain a mountain or hill as one of our hills And that burned with fire that was terrible And there was blackness and darkness and storm and tempest covering the heavens and the hill this was terrible And there was the sound of a Trumpet you know that signifies war And there was a terrible voyce of words also and so terrible that they that heard it intreated that they might hear it no more And the Lord was so strict that if but a beast touch but the hill that was black and dark he was to be stoned or thrust through with a dart he was to be killed nay Moses himself that was to be the Mediator of the people in that Testament he did exceedingly fear and quake So that there is nothing in that old Covenant of works that God saith is done away Heb. 8. there was nothing in the old Testament but what was terrible and full of horror To come a little more particular there is nothing in the state of a Professor who is yet on Mount Sinai as many Professors are who are not yet dead but alive to the Law they are not free-men they are not sons and daughters they have not the principles of the Gospel clearly wrought in them I say those people take them in the bulk and frame of their profession there is nothing in their whole life in all the course of their profession but what is ful of horror and terror If they look upon God they see him more or less as an angry Iudg ready to stand at the catch to consume them If they look on grace in them that is so little that they continually conclude that they are hypocrites If they look on sin they look every moment when God will be avenged on them because of it If they look on affliction they say Now God hath found me out I knew it would be so that the wrath of God would be on me If they look on Christ saith he He doth not belong to me and the Promises are not mine A man that is a Professor on Mount Sinai as far as he walks in the Covenant of works or as it were by the Covenant of works so far of necessity his soul within is as Mount Sinai was without that is full of blackness and darkness and storms and tempest inevitably and unavoidably it will be so Therefore clearly this is the reason of all the troubles and horrors and terrors and uncomfortableness of your spirits because you have one foot on Mount Sinai you are not come up to Pauls pitch I through the Law am dead to the Law you are not dead to the Law you are not delivered from it I mean the Law as it is a Covenant of
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
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
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
more and more for we are setling like the Jews in an outward formal Reformation without heart Now it would be terrible if the Lord should chuse our own administration and give us according to our own heart I hope he will not But this lay heavy upon my spirit to tell you of therefore the Lord direct you to make the best use you can that if it be his blessed will this place that is the honor and glory of the Kingdom and the refuge of the Saints that the Lord would not come against it FINIS THE TABLE  Page A  Abiding  ABiding with God in evil times 72 Actions  Saints not under the Law in their actions 157 Afflictions  Afflictions of godly and wicked how different 31 Afflictions turn to the good of Saints 119 The life of Faith in afflictions 130 Saints not under the Law in regard of afflictions 150 Afflictions not to be fainted in 194 Amend  All should amend when the wicked are punished 104 Angels  Angels pry into Gospel mysterie 201 Angels good and bad do it ibid. Apostacy  Apostacy a provoking sin 11 Assurance  Life of Faith in Assurance 130 Awake  Christians duty to awake God 86 B.  Betray  Not to betray Gods cause 88 Blasphemy  Blasphemy a provoking sin 9 Blessing see latter  Bristol  Gods mercy in recovering Bristol 107 C  Christ See cleaving  Christ makes all things amiable 192 Cleaving  Blessedness of cleaving to the Lord 70 Honor of cleaving to Christ in ill times 73 Special times of cleaving to God 77 Comfort  What should help Christians comfort 175 Conceits  Vain conceits of wicked men 33 Confidence  Ground of a Christians confidence 27 Consolation  Consolation a duty 40 Four things that hinder consolation ibid. Covenant  Spiritual understanding of the New Covenant effects of it 66 Covetousness  Covetousness a provoking sin 237 Creature  The vanity of the Creature why discovered 61 Conjunction  Conjunction of those that cleave to God 70 D.  Difference  Difference of Gods dealing with Saints 36 Difference between Saints and sinners 208 Discouraged  Weak Saints not to be discouraged 143 Distrust  Distrust in times of danger to be avoided 87 Division  Division among Saints a provoking sin 9 Duty See Consolation  Four grounds of Duty 149 E.  Enemies  Assurance of victory over enemies the effects of it 64 How God destroyes his enemies 85 Equality  Equality that should be between Saints 144 Evil see good  Example  Example of Saints a ground of prayer 150 F.  Faith  Faith the want of it what it doth 40 Faith the life of it 44 Faith how God tries it 83 Faith how the just live by it 128 See Affliction Assurance Sanctification  False  False dealing 237 Fondness  Holy fondness between God and the Saints 54 Holy fondness in five things 55 Fondness wrought four ways 61 Formality  Formality in duties a provoking sin 4 See Reformation  G.  Garison see Minde  God see Hypocrisie Persecutors  Good  To call evil good a provoking sin 11 See Afflictions Work  Gospel  Gospel precepts highest 162 Gospel Mysteries to be attended 202 Gospel riches to be admired 204 Gospels simplicity 225 Government  Government how to be affected 204 Greater  How to argue from less mercies to greater 120 Grace  Grace weak how to comfort it 45 Grace what meant by it 160 Of those that are under Grace 162 Power in Grace more then the Law 164 H.  Heart  Heart hardened 8 Hidden  Saints Gods hidden ones 90 Holiness  Holiness desired on wrong grounds 41 Right laboring for holiness 198 See Comfort  Hypocrisie  Hypocrisie hateful to God 48 Hipocrites honor creatures above God 50 Hypocrisie dishonors God ibid. I.  Judg.  Saints not to judg one another 143 Judgments  Maner of Gods proceeding to judgment 2 Cause of judgments what 3 Judgments why sent 103 Ingenuity  Ingenuity of right Saints 163 Justification  How to live by Faith in Justification 128 133 K.  Kiss  Holy Kiss what 145 L.  Latter Last  Blessing of the latter times 122 First shall be last how 138 Law  Saints under the Law how 156 See Persons Actions Afflictions Gospel  Learning  Learning humane wherein useful 211 Life see Faith Sanctification  Lord see cleaving  Love  Love of God what it works 62 To love though we be not loved 181 Mutual love how attained 184 M.  Minde  Garison of the minde what 16 Mingled  The life of a Christian mingled 133 Ministers  Ministers sins provoke God 149 N.  Nature  Duties grounded in nature 6 O.  Officers  Officers sins provoke God 8 Oppression  Sin of oppression 236 Ordinance  Prayer an Ordinance of God 149 Ordinances not to be neglected 152 Ordinances needful 153 P.  Patience see waiting  Peace  Peace to be studied by Saints 196 Perpetual see Prayer Persecutors Persecution  To cleave to God in persecution 78 Persecutors design 91 God persecuted in the Saints 93 Children of the godly may prove fierce persecutors 99 Persons  Persons of Saints how under the Law 156 Power  Power that Saints have 166 The Spirit called power how 173 See Grace  Prayer  Prayer a perpetual duty 151 Prayer whence it proceeds 169 Wants of prayer how supplied 170 See Ordinance Nature Precept Example Promise  Precept  Precepts ground of prayer 150 See Gospel  Promises  Promises ground of prayer 151 Protection  Protection of God who have right to it 21 Pride  Pride how discovered 185 R.  Reflect  Reflect acts hard to man 177 Saints to reflect on their estate 178 Reformation  Formal Reformation a provoking sin 5 Refuge  God a refuge 14 To repair to God as a refuge 17 Religion  Religion wherein it consists 211 Riches see Gospel  Revolting  Revolting a provoking sin 239 S.  Saints see Weak Sanctification  Life of Faith in Sanctification 129 131 Saintship to be prized 194 Satan  Grounds of Caution against Satan 202 Security  Security why to avoyd it 140 Self-love  Self-love a provoking sin 10 Shame  Iudgments sent to shame men 103 Simplicity  Simplicity of Religion 212 Simplicity of the Gospel 223 Sin  What sins provoke judgments 3 Carriage of Saints faln into sin 43 Saints carriage in a deluge of sin 77 Aggravations of sin 240 Silent  God silent in danger why 83 Soul  The soul of God departs from incorrigible sinners 244 Spirit  Spirit powerful in Saints 166 Spirit undervalued how 167 Spirit wherein powerful 169 Spirit differs Saints and Sinners 208 Spirit how known 210 Spirit to be labored for 213 Spirits excellency 215 Spirits grieving dangerous 220 Spirit to be prized 221 See Word Teaching Work Power  T.  Teaching  Teaching of the Spirit 170 Testament  Testaments compared 188 Trouble  Trouble in Saints whence 190 V.  Vengeance  Vengeance of God against the wicked 27 Union  Union between Christ and Christians 229 Upright  Uprightness ground of it 22 Uprightness how tried 84 W.  Waiting  Ground of waiting on God 112 Weak  Weak Saints not to be contemned 141 Weak Saints their carriage to stronger 142 Weak Saints to be encouraged 196 Word  Spirit to be advanced as speaking in the Word 168 Work  Who works in and for us 172 To be ready to every good work 206 FINIS