a happinesse is all this to know Jesus Christ and as present in my soul To know the love of God in mine heart To know the exceedingly exceeding weight of glory prepared and prepared for me and to know all that God hath freely given me in order unto that exceeding glory This c. 4. He fits us for that salvation which Christ hath purchased for us As the He fits us for that salvation which Christ hath purchased for us blood of Christ did purchase our salvation so the Spirit of Christ doth fit us for the enjoyment thereof He makes us meet to â—e partakers of the inheritance of thâ— Saints in light The Apostle speaking of this salvation under several expressions in 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 3 4. he addes in the fifth verse Now he which hath wâ—oughâ— us for the self-same thing is God who hath given unto us the earnest of his Spirit And this fitting work of his upon us for the salvation purchased by Christ he doth execute Partly by cleansing and purifying ouâ— sinful hearâ—s and mortifying those lusts which otherwise would render us unfit and uncapable of that glorious salvation Partly by endowing and beautifying the soul with Christ and his righteousnesse and his graces that thereby an enterance may be made for us into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1. 11. Partly by leading and upholding us in all the wayes of Christ untill we come to receive the end of our faith even the salvation of our souls 5. I will adde but one work more of the Spirit on your behalf which is this He works all our works in us and for us He works all your works in you and for you Consider your works either of faith or obedience your works of faith in reference to the promises of God and your work of obedience in reference to the precepts of God although you are the persons who do believe the one and obey the other yet it is the Spirit of Christ which is the cause and the powerful principle of those in you He it is who doth make your hearts to believe and who doth cause you to walk in his Statutes and do them Ezek. 36. 27. 4. The Spirit is yours in respect of his help or vertue The Spirit helpeth our The Spirit is ours in respect of his help and vertue infirmities Rom. 8. 26. And there are six things wherein the Spirit is an help unto all the people of God 1. In all their Communions with God 2. In the weaknesses of all their graces 3. In the actings of every grace 4. In the conflicts of grace 5. In the darknesse upon their spirits 6. In the 〈◊〉 of their souls 1. The Spiri◠〈◊〉 them in in all their communions with God in their Meditations He help them in all their communions with God of God in their hearing of the Word of God in their addresses of prayer unto God and as to this the Apostle gives a special instance in that Rom. 8. 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered When we are to pray there is in us sometimes an infirmity of ignorance we know not what to pray for either for the matter or for the manner and there is in us sometimes an infirmity of deadnesse and dulnesse we cannot pray with that fervency as we should or as we would But now the Spirit helps these infirmities by way of instruction Teaching us what especially to pray for and by way of causation in making intercession for us that is in quickening and enabling us to pray with groanings that is with such full and strong affections of heart as cannot be uttered or expressed by words Our streightened and narrow and barren hearts are many times by the influence and assistance of Gods Spirit enlarged and opened and filled with a Spirit of supplication with such an ardency with such an earnestnesse with such a copiousnesse that after we have long insisted with God yet we have not opened half our minds and desires unto God it excites all our graces and sets them a work such an help is the Spirit unto us in praying unto God 2. The Spirit helps them in the weaknesse of their graces He waters the plants In the weakness of their graces and blows upon the buds and draws on his works of grace towards perfection He doth as it were Nurse them up and breed and brood them up He helps your â—imme knowledge by adding light unto light and opening more and more the eyes of your understanding to know the things of God in Christ He helps the weak and staggering faith by adding faith unto faith in answering your doubts and evidencing your grounds and interests in Jesus Christ He is the wind which blows upon your garden and makes the Spices there of to flow out Cant. 4. 16. 3. The Spirit helps them in the actings of every grace You know In the actings of every grace the distinction of gratia praeveniens gratia subsequens gratia operans gratia cooperans It is the Spirit which works grace in us and it is the Spirit which makes grace wrought in us to work You are not able of your selves to use the graces given unto you when you please without the influence and assistance of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 15. 10. By the grace of God I am that I am and his grace bestowed upon me was not in vain I laboured yet not I but the grace of God in me Can you trust when you will and mourn when you will and fear when you will and command your thoughs and passions when you will and patiently bear the hand of God when you will The light if it were cut off from the influence and presence of the Sunne would not be light nor give light at all The arme if it were cut off from the body it could not stirre at all Though the arme be grafted into the body yet it stirres by influence from the head No grace that we have could move or act at all were it not acted and moved by the Spirit of Christ and therefore when you are to believe he helps you to believe and when you are to repent he helps you to repent and when you are to blesse he helps you to blesse and when you are to suffer c. His hand is upon your hand his strength is upon your strength his grace is upon his own grace As all your graces have their being from his power of life so they have their working from his power of influence too He it is who worketh in you to will and to do 4. The Spirit helps them in the conflicts of grace when inward temptations arise In the conflicts or grace out of your own hearts and when outward temptations 〈◊〉 in from
withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned A branch may be in a tree two wayes One is by a meer corporeal adherence by cleaving and sticking to the body of the tree and so every dead branch is in the tree as well as those that live such branches have no union they are dead and cut off and cast away into the fire Another is by a real participation of the life sap and influence of the root That which makes us to be in Christ any kind of way is Faith and according to the differences of faith are those differences of being in Christ You may read in Scripture of a dead faith James 2. 26. This dead faith takes in an external profession of Christ and a self aiming dependance on Christ to keep us from Hell and get us to Heaven But for all this there is no real union with Christ And we read too of a lively and unfeigned faith of a faith which joynes us and Christ in one Spirit which graffs us indeed into Christ and makes us partakers of the life and grace of Christ O where is this faith this living faith this ingraffing faith this uniting faith is the only precious faith and the only faith which brings us into the Covenant and the only faith which can look on God as our God and promising mercy and salvation unto us If you have not this faith you have no interest in Christ and if you have no interest in Christ you have no interest in God nor in the Covenant of God You cannot own God for yours nor can you own the promises of God as yours as made unto you But here now occurre two serious questions 1. One is How we may know whether our faith be a faith of union which unites Two serious Questions us to Christ 2. The second is How we may attain unto the faith of union which only brings us into the Covenant SECT V. 1. Quest HOw we may know whether our Faith be a Faith of real union with How we may know whether our faith be a faith of union Christ a faith which unites us to Christ indeed Sol. This is a most pertinent question because our real interest in the Covenant of grace depends upon it all depends upon it out of Christ and out of Covenant in Christ and in Covenant And if your faith be an uniting faith then Christ is yours and God is yours and all the good of the Covenant is yours Now there are five things which are to be considered about the faith of union or the faith which indeed unites us to Christ Five things about the faith of union 1. The manner 〈◊〉 it is wrought in the heart 2. The peculiar operations of it upon the soule in relation to this union 3. The very act or acts by which and upon which the soule is indeed brought into union 4. The qualities of this union by faith 5. The choice influences or effects which do alwayes attend that union with Christ by faith 1. If your faith be a faith which unites you to Christ Then it is the work and The manner how it is wrought in the heart It is the work of the Spirit of Christ fruit of the spirit and it is wrought by the Spirit in an uniting way 1. It is the work of the Spirit of Christ None doth or can raise and produce this faith but the very Spirit of God Col. 2. 12. Ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead His mighty power is put forth to produce it Ephes 1. 19. 1 Cor. 2. 5. Your faith stands not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God 2 Cor. 4. 13. We having the same Spirit of Faith In all these places the Apostle speaks of that faith which interests your persons in Christ This faith he calls the Demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2. 4. and the power of God and the operation of God and the Spirit of Faith and in Isa 53. 1. The revealing of the Arm of God Consider this Faith in all the parts and degrees of it you shall finde that every one of them comes from the Spirit of God Faith is sometimes stiled knowledge and believing knowing why the right knowledge of Christ is a fruit or work of the Spirit of God Matth. 11. 25. Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes Faith is sometimes stiled acknowledgment Col. 2. 2. The acknowledgement of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ And no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 3. Faith or believing is sometimes stiled a coming unto Christ and saith Christ himself No man can come to me except the Father draw him Joh. 6. 44. It is called a receiving of Christ Joh. 1. 12. which ability to receive Christ depends only on the will of God verse 13. Well then uniting faith is the sole work of the Spirit of God if any man be brought into Christ and joyned unto Christ this work is wrought by the Spirit of Christ 2. The spirit works this uniting Faith in an uniting way or manner how is that The Spirit works this in a uniting way will you say Thus it is when the Spirit doth work this faith in us he doth it in a Gospel manner the Gospel way is the uniting way accompanying it all along 1. By Evangelical light 2. By Evangelical offers 3. By Evangelical promises 4. By Evangelical efficacy 1. He lets in such a Gospel-light into the soule of a broken and troubled sinner that The Spirit lets in a Gospel light into the soule be is now able to see and to discern the wonderful grace of God in Christ even the glories of Christ the sealing and anointing oâ— him to be the Mediator and Redeemer and Saviour of sinners and the life of the world the Prince of peace the only help and hope of them that are lost Joh. 3. 16. The Gospel saith so and the Spirit makes him to see it so The people that walked in darkness have seen great lâ—ght Isa 9 2. Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. 2. When he hath let in such a light that the sinner is convinced of the infinite Enables the soule to apprehend the singular kindness of God in the offers of Christ mercy and grace of God in Christ Then he further enables the sinner to apprehend the singular kindnâ—ss of God in the offers of this Christ unto him unto you is the word of this salvation sent Acts 13. 26. and verse 38. Be it known unto you that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins And the â—pirit accompanies the Gospel in this offer As the Gospel outwardly offers Christ to sinners so doth the Spirit
inwardly offer Christ to the heart and secretlâ—â—alls there Come unto Christ you are poor and you are thirsty and you are brâ—â—â—h and bruised in heart And such sinners as these doth Christ call to come unto him and live for ever He was anointed for you and is sent to you 3. The Spirit backs these offers and calls with expresse promises for though the He backes these offers with Promises sinner be exceeding glad to finde out Christ the Saviour yet he is exceeding doubtful whether he may close with Christ thus offering himself unto him therefore herein likewise doth the Spirit appear towards the working of faith viz. he doth clear up the promises of the Gospel so that the poor sinner may be convinced and satisfied that Jesus Christ is contented and willing to be his and that he may come and be kindly and graciously accepted of Christ Those passages Him that comes to me I will in no wise reject Joh. 6. 27. And let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely Rev. 22 17. And a bruised reed will he not break Matth. 12. 20. Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest Matth. 11 28. All these and other promises and encouragements are set home by the Spirit upon the heart of the poor sinner so that he deemes that he hears Jesus Christ himself speaking alluring comforts unto his soul 4. The Spirit rests not here but proceeds further For notwithstanding all this The Spirit carries on the work further yet the poor sinner findes himself without all strength and saith he I am not able to believe though I see this Christ and his goodness and his love and his kindness and his graciousnesse yet I cannot believe yet I cannot come to him c. Now upon this there are two things more wrought by the Spirit in the heart of the poor sinner 1. One is Earnâ—st desires for faith O Lord give me faith He works earnest desires for faith perswade my heart bring in my heart draw it to Christ for Christ his sake 2. The other is The very gift or work of faith The Spirit by his mighty power gives an ability unto the heart of the sinner to come to him to receive him and thuâ— uniting faâ—th is wrâ—ught namely by the Spirit of Christ accompanying and blessing the Gospel as you have heard unto the soule of a sinner Therefore look well to your selves in this If your faith be not a faith which the Spirit of God works by the Gospel it is a false faith it is a faith of delusion and not of union it is a presumption of your own making a meere imagination of your own No faith will bring you to Christ but that faith which comes from the Spirit of Christ He works saiâ—h it self 2. That Faith which unites to Christ hath alwayes some particular operations upon the soule in relation to that union with Christ For the faith which is The peculiar operations of faith about this union wrought by the Spirit of Christ is no base quality nor is it any dead quality but it is Noble High and Active Now there are three things which this faith doth work in every one that hath it 1. An exceeding appreciation or esteem of Christ 2. A fervent desire to enjoy Christ 3. A separation of the heart It works from every thing that would hinder it from union with Christ 1. If your faith be this saith of union then it hath raised your hearts to exceeding An exceeding esteem of Christ high estimation of Christ other people have no high nor great thoughts of Christ What is thy beloved more than another beloved said they to the Church Cant. 5. 9. There is no beauty in him that we should desire him said they Isa 57. 2. Not this man but Barabbas said the Jews Joh. 18. 40. The Farme and the Oxen are preferred before him Luke 14. 18 19. But unto you who believe he is precious saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 7. Pretious faith makes us to look on Christ as pretious How did the Church look on Christ in that Cant. 5 why As the chiefest of ten thousand verse 10. As altogether lovely verse 16. How did those Believers look on Christ in Joh. 1. 14 We beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father full of Grace and Truth How did Paul look on Christ Phil. 3. 8. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord Beloved Never was there unbeliever â—â—o had high thoughts of Christ and never was there sound believer but he hâ—â— precious thoughts of Christ the Apostle tells us as much 1 Cor. 1. 23. We preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness verse 24. But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God O sirs The excellencies of Christ are hidden excellencies from the men of the world and no eye can see them but the eye of faith there must be a light shining in the heart to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. When faith is wrought then a light is wrought to see the beauties of Christ the beauty of his Person the beauty of his Offices the beauty of his Love of his Death of his Righteousness of his Holiness of his Peace c. the vaile is removed and we do with open face as in a glass behold the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. c. So that none like Christ he is the Pearle of great price and nothing like Christ no love like his no enjoyment like the enjoyment of him c. 2. If your faith be this Faith of union Then it hath raised in your hearts Exceeding desires to enjoy Christ exceeding desires to enjoy Christ I must have this Christ I cannot live without this Christ O Lord give me Christ I have nothing if I have not Christ There is nothing in heaven or earth that I desire in comparison of Christ I desire to be found in him saith Paul He is the desire of all Nations Hag. 2 7. You never had such desires towards Christ untill faith was wrought in you such high desires such longings such hungrings such thirstings nor such busie and stirring desires saw you him whom my soule loveth and I sought him whom my soule loveth and I will seek him whom my soule loveth Nor such unsatisfied desires Nothing satisfies you or puts an end to your desires but Christ desired by you 3. If your faith be this faith of union Then it did work in your hearts a A separation from all things which hinder union separation from all things which otherwise would have hindred yâ—u from union with Christ You know that whatsoever keeps things at
to form it in himself Indeed God doth require faith in Christ but God doth not require of the sinner to create this faith in his own heart 2. Though faith be the condition of the Covenant yet it is such a condition God himself doth promise to give it which God himself doth promise to give unto the sinner As it is a condition on our part so it is a gift on Gods part we are to have it but God is to give it according to his promise and undertakes to work it in us according to his power 3. Though faith be the condition yet it is such a condition that God affords all And affords means for the working of it the means for tâ—e working and deriving of it unto the sinner There is no sinner in all the world upon whom God calls for faith in Christ but unto that sinner God affords the Gospel which is the meanes as you have heard designed by God to work faith 4. As God affords the means unto sinners by which faith is wrought so his And his Spirit doth assiâ—â— those meâ—â—â—â— Spirit upon whose operation faith depends doth ordinarily accompany and assist and blesse those meanes to make them to be the power of God to the production of faith in the hearts of sinners so that the Gospel is never sent unto any people but there are some of them effectually called so as to believe through grace 5. And fifthly as there is no sinner unto whom the Gospel of Faith is sent who can No sinner to whom the Gospel is preached can conclude that God never intended to give him faith nay every sinner is some time or other invited properly conclude that God never intends to give him this faith so every sinner may and doth some time or other finde that the Spirit doth by the Gospel earnestly deal with his heart to believe and receive Christ The Spirit by the Gospel doth let in so much light of conviction and doth so far act upon his heart by motions and arguments and perswasions to receive Christ that if yet he continue unbelieving this fault cannot be charged on God who doth work so wonderfully with him to believe but only on himself who slights those means and quenches those motions of the Spirit and wilfully opposeth and resisteth the Spirit in this working Hence it is that you never read of an impossibility on Gods part for with him all things are possible nor yet of an impotency on the sinners part why he believes not though that be true that the sinner in himself considered is insufficient but still the charge lies against the sinner for his wilfulnesse and unwillingnesse ye would not and ye will not come unto me that ye might have life and we will not have this man to reign over us Because God puts forth so much of power by his Spirit in the Gospel as may satisfie us that believing is a pâ—ssible work and that our unbelief sticks unto us not only from a want of power but only from the presence and redundancy of perversenesse in our wills 6. Let me add one conclusion more That this faith which is the condition admitting God will never deny faith to them that cordially ask it into the Covenant is such a condition as God never did nor will deny tâ— any sinner seriously and cordially asking it of him even in this it holds true also aske and it shall be given unto you If God sometimes gives this faith to them that do not ask will he deny it unto them to whom he gives an heart to ask Especially seeing that he therefore gives us an heart to ask because it is his purpose to give us this faith which we do ask See now you have the comfort in the general from this that faith is the condition of the Covenant of grace namely that then a sinner is capable and hopeful of being brought into the Covenant notwithstanding all his former sinfulness and present unrighâ—eousnesse and unworthinesse none of which do hinder faith from inteâ—esting of us in Christ And this Faith also is such a condition as God himself doth promise to give and set apart peculiar meanes to work it in us aâ—â—pon our serious asking of him will give unto us 2. I shall now speak of the particular comforts which do belong unto Believers Comforts to believers who stand possessed of this faith which unites to Christ and is the condition of the Covenant of Grace I grant that distinction of weak believers and of strong believers and that by reason of this gradual diversity there is therefore a different apprehension and perception of your comforts But if your faith be such as indeed brings you into union with Christ be that faith weak or strong then I confidently assure you that your condition is very comfortable and blessed Quest But what are those comforts and what is that blessednesse for all who What those comforts are are by faith united with Christ Sol. I will mention some of them unto you If you be by faith united to Christ so that he is yours and you are his Then 1. Vnquestionably God is your God for union with Christ infallibly takes in union Unquestionably God is your God with God if Christ be yours then God is yours Ye are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3. 23. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Sâ—nne Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1. 3. Beloved this is a truth that you can never have union with one Person of the Trinity alone as the union of those persons is common and mutual between themselves the Father hath union with the Son and the Holy Ghost and the Son hath union with the Father and the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost hath union with them both so is our union with them If we be united to Christ we are united to God the Father of Christ and to the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Christ If Christ be yours then God the Father is yours and if Christ be yours then God the Holy Ghost is yours As Christ is in you of a truth so God is in you of a truth and the Spirit of Christ is in you also And as you are in the Son so are you in the Father and so are you in the Spirit And as the Son is in you so the Father is in you and the Holy Ghost is in you And because this one thing is the Caput the summe and heighth and depth of all our comfort and blessednesse I shall therefore crave the favour to speak some few words unto it 1. First then our union with Christ draws in with it our union with God so that Our union with Christ draws in with it our union with God we and God himself are no longer enemies by way of difference nor strangers by way of distance but we are made nigh bâ— Christ not only nigh in a way of pacification by removal of
joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth Luke 15. 10. I call it an eminent and great change because it surpasseth all other changes which may be found in men who yet have no newness of heart There may be a change 1. From rudeness of life to civility of conversation 2. From profaneness of walking to formality in Religion 3. From ignorance and blindness of mind to knowledge 4. From the practice of sin to a forbearance of sin 5. From quietness of Conscience to perplexity and trouble of Conscience and yet no newness of heart The change which constitutes a new heart is a very deep change it makes man to be a new creature it doth quite alter the frame and estate of a mans heart and Spirit It is a change in the soul Thirdly When the heart is made new there is a change made in the soul and in the whole soul 1. It is a change in the soule Simile It is one thing to plaister an old house and it is another thing to build a new house It is one thing to adorn a dead man and it is another thing to inform or enliven a dead man Newness of life doth principally respect the root and spring The work of renewing grace begins where sin begins it begins the Reformation where sin begins the deformation it begins to change and cleanse where sin begins to corrupt and defile and that is in the soul Outward Reformation is one thing and inward Reformation is another thing The Pharisees made clean the outside of the cup and they were painted Sepulchres which within were full of rotten bones Hypocrisie can make a new garbe of visible actions but it can never make an new heart it never changes and alters the soul that still remains under the love and power of sin But when the heart is made new there is some inward work of grace by which the soul is changed from death to life from unholiness to holiness 2. It is a change in the whole soul when the heart is made new all the soul In the whole soule is divinely changed Therefore this newness or Renewingness is compared to the light which disperseth itself into the whole body of the Aire so that there is not any one part of the Aire which is not enlightned To the oyntment which fills the whole room with sweet Odour To leaven which diffuseth itself over the whole lump As it is with Original sin it is an universal defilement it infects all the soul there is not one faculty of the soul but it is defiled by it So it is with Renewing grace or newness of heart it is an universal alteration or change it alters all the soul and all the faculties of the soul when a new heart is given there is a change made 1. In the minde or understanding which now is freed from darkness and enjoys an heavenly light to know the things of God and to discern things that are excellent and the mysteries of Christ and salvation appear in their glory We all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord c. 2 Cor. 3. 18. 2. In the Judgement which is now freed from mistakes and Errors and high imaginations and carnal reasonings and disputes and is now captivated to the Truth and approves of what is good and condemneth what is evil It counts sin the gâ—eatest evil and Christ the most incomparable happiness and the enjoyment of God the only portion I count all things but drosse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ said Paul Phil. 3. 8. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee saith David Psal 73. 25. Thirdly In the Will which was proud and stubborn and unwilling and averse and perverse nothing would perswade it to hearken to Christ to yield to receive to obey all the arguments of mercy and glory would not â—ffect and take it Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life Joh. 5. 40. But when the heart is made new the Will also is changed now it falls down before Christ Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9. 6. Draw me and I will run after thee Cant. 1. 4. In all the affections of the soul Never was there such a change such a newness how they fall out with one another Grief falls out with Love and Love with hatred nay they seem to be changed one into another Joy into Grief and Love into Hatred and Hatred into Love what a man did love he now hates and what a man did hate he now loves and what a man desired he now fears and what a man delighted in he now grieves at it Nay look on them distinctly in their several motion The desires were Who will shew us any good Now the desires are What shall we do to be saved The delights were in sin in sensualities in vanities in vain societies now they are in the favour of God in Christ in pardoning mercy in holy and heavenly society in doing the will of God The like may be said for love for grief for fear c. Fourthly This change which constitutes newness of heart is wrought by the Spirit of Christ Therefore our Sanctification which is the same with the giving A change wrought by the Spirit of Christ of a new heart is called the Sanctification of the Spirit 1. Pet. 1. 2. And our change into the image of glory from glory to glory is by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. And the newness of heart is the work of the Spirit of Christ no man changeth or renews his own heart but the Spirit doth all And therefore he is called the Spirit 1. Of Knowledge because he illuminates and gives knowledge and light 1 Cor. 12. 8. 2. Of Grace and holiness because he makes us holy Ephes 4. 30. 3. Of Faith because he causeth our hearts to believe 2 Cor. 4. 13. 4. Of Love and joy because he worketh these in our hearts All saving good comes from the Father as the Fountain and through the Son as the Mediator and is wrought in us by the Spirit As in the Creation the Spirit moved upon the waters and so did as it were brood and frame all the Creatures To in Regeneration the Spirit descends upon the hearts and by his vigour doth forme all the newness and spiritual change in it This change is wrought by infusing a new Principle Fifthly The Spirit works this change in the heart by infusing a new Principle or quality of grace A new Principle is necessary to make a new heart there must be something put into the heart to change the heart in all alterations thus it is Simile If you would have the cold removed from the water heat must come in and if you would have darkness removed from the Aire the light must come in and if you would have sickness
1. Because he works where and on whom and when and how he himself pleaseth he blowes where he lists Joh. 3. 8. 2. And he is a â—ree Spirit in as much as all spiritual freedom and liberty is received of us from him hence the Apostle 2 Cor. 3. 17. where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 4. The good Spirit by Spirit is good â—sa 143 10 Thou gavest them of thy good Spirit The good Spirit Neh. 9. 20. The Spirit is essentially good and counsels good he is indeed a good Spirit unto us All the good thoughts in us and all the good desires in us and all the good we have or shall receive from God in Christ is handed to us by this good Spirit yea and all the sweet sights of God himself that ever we enjoyed and all the tasts that ever we have had of Jesus Christ and all the joyes and contentments in our souls we are beholding unto this good Spirit for every one of them though in some respect you are not beholding unto the Spirit for dying and suffering and satisfying and reconciling and purchasing for you yet this I may safely affirme that for all the enjoyments of all the sweet comforts depending on the sufferings of Christ you are singularly beholding to the good spirit for them you never could have partaked of Christ nor of any one good purchased by Christ had it not been for this good Spirit 5. The powerfull or mighty Spirit The Spirit of the Lord is called the Spirit of The powerful Spirit might Isa 11. 2. The power of the holy Ghost Rom. 15. 13. the power of the Spirit of God verse 19. the power of the Highest Luke 1. 35. It was the power of this Spirit which did convince you of your sins and which did break your heard harts and did rescue and deliver you from the power of darknesse which doth subdue your iniquities and pull down your strong bolds It was and is this powerfull Spirit by whom the Ministrations or Ordinances of the Gospel have been and still are of power with you The Word is called the sword of the Spirit Ephes 6. 17. The Ministrations of them selves are weak it is the concomitant presence of the Spirit which makes them powerful and lively for your conversion comfort and salvation you had laine in the same condition and darknesse and bondage and death with other men had not the powerful and mighty Spirit of God put forth the greatnesse of his own strength to the alteration of your hearts by his own grace 2. The Spirit is yours in respect of his gifts and fruits You read in 1 Cor. 12. The Spirit is ours in respect of his gifts or fruits 14. of diversities of gifts of the Spirit for edification or to profit withall ver 7. and you read of the first fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8. 23. and of the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. The Spirit of God as to these gifts and fruits is called the Spirit of grace Zach. 12. 10. and the Spirit of wisdome Isa 11. 2. and the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord and the Spirit of faith 2 Cor. 4. 13. and the Spirit of love 2 Tim. 1. 7. and the Spirit of supplication Zach. 12 10. the fruit of the Spirit saith the Apostle in Gal. 5. 22. is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith and ver 23. meeknesse temperance There are six things which I would briefly observe concerning the graces or fruits Six things concerning the graces of the Spirit They are the beauties of a Christian They are necessary to salvation of the Spirit 1. They are the Beauties Glories Ornaments Chains Pearls Jewels of a Christian you have no excellencies till you partake of them but are dead loathsome polluted and vile These are the very image of God 2. They are necessary unto salvation No man can be saved without them They are the way to the kingdom though they be not the cause of reigning in the kingdom without holinesse no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. 3. They are pledges of salvation therefore called the first fruits which were They are pledges of salvation the beginnings and the pledges of the full harvest and also the earnest of the Spirit which he leaves with us to assure us of that glorious happinesse which we are to receive shortly in fulnesse 4. They are given to none but unto such as shall be saved There are the common gifts of the Spirit which are for the edification of others These they may have They are given to none but such as shall be saved who shall perish like those who helped to build the Ark and yet were drowned But there are the special gifts of the Spirit which are for Renovation of the soule and for the preparation of it for glory These are given to none but unto such who are elected unto salvation As many as were ordained to eternal life believed Act. 13. 48. Matth. 11. 25. Hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes 5. Every gift or grace which accompanies salvation is by the Spirit given Every grace accompanying salvation is given to every child of God to every child of God to every one who hath God to be his God in Covenant every one of them hath every saving grace of the Spirit 1. The spirit of grace I will poure upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace Zach. 12. 10. 2. The Spirit of knowledge They shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them Jer. 31. 34. 3. The Spirit of wiâ—dâ—me The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give unto you the Spirit of wisdome Eph. 1. 17. 4. The Spirit of faith We have the same Spirit of faith 2 Cor. 4. 13. You are all the children oâ— God by faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3. 26. To them that have obtained like precious faith with us 2 Pet. 1. 1. 5. The Spirit of love 2 Tim. 1. 7. Ye your selvâ—s arâ— taught of God to love one another 1 Thes 4. 9. What should I speak of godly sorrow repentance humblenesse meeknesse patience c. whatsoever gift is necessary to our salvation the Spirit doth certainly work in every one of the people of God although not in the same measure proportion and height yet to the same truth and for the same efficacy unto their salvation Every child of God hath the same Spirit of grace and faith and love and though one Christians graces may fall short of anothers for the quantity yet they do not fall short for the present quality nor for the future glory The weakest grace of the Spirit is able to change the heart and save the soul 6. The Spirit doth cherish and preserve and keep all those saving gifts of his The Spirit doth cherish and prese ve all those saving gifts in
the life of your comforts it is your Paradise and your Heaven here on earth 5. Maintain and justifie your Covenant-relation when once it is made manifest Maintain and justifie your Covenant-relation Four things we should alwayes maintain The unchangeableness of out Covenant-relation unto you against all the suggestions of Satan and against all the risings and oppositions of your own unbelief I here are four things especially which you should still maintain and make good for at them doth Satan most strike at 1. The unchangeablenesse of the Covenant-relation This God is our God for ever and ever He will be our Guide even unto death Psal 48. 14. For I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You are many times under Spiritual sâ—â—ences God seems not to regard your prayers and many times under Spiritual delaies God puts you off from day to day and many times under Spiritual desertions God hides his face from you and Satan in such cases puts it upon you to question and disown your Covenant-relation If God were your God it would not be thus But notwithstanding all these or any other trials of your selves yet God still maintains his interest in you and your relation to himself God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew saith the Apostle Rom. 11. 2. I am the Lord I change not Mal. 3. 6. I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the housâ— of Jacob and will look for him Isa 8. 17. But Zion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her womb Yea they may forget yet I will not forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me So Hosea 2 19. I will betroth thee unto me for ever and Heb. 13. 5. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee 2. The tendernesse of your Covenant-relation The tendernesse of Gods love The tenderness of your Covenant-relation unto you and the tendernesse of Gods care over you Do not suffer Satan to raise jealousies and do not you nourish any jealousies about these if you do so you dishonour your God by them and make your soules to serve him with bitterness your God loves you with as tender love as ever Father loved his dearest child Is Ephraim my dear son is he a pleasant childe my bowels are troubled for him Jer. 31. 20. His love is set upon you Deut. 7. 7. And he doth rest in his love Zeph. 3. 17. He loves you with an everlasting love and therefore draws you with loving kindnesse Jer. 31. 3. And your God hath a most tender care over you as a man hath over his jewels which are his chiefest treasures I will make up my jewels Mal. 3. 17. and as a man hath over the apple of his eye he led him about he instructed him he kept him as the apple of his eye Deut. 32. 10. And as an Eagle stirreth up her nest fluttereth over her young spreads abroad her wings taketh them beareth them on her wings verse 11. So the Lord c. 3. The goodnesse of the Covenant relation that God still is and will be The goodnesse of the Covenant relation good unto you that he prepares of his goodnesse for and he prepares mercy and truth for you and layes up exceeding goodnesse for you reserves it for you and is never weary nor will ever turn away from you from doing of you good 4. The graciousnesse of your God in Covenant that as at the first when he took The graciousnesse of your God in Covenant you into the Covenant this was the work of his own grace so all along in the dispensations of the Covenant the Lord still acts in a way of grace towards you alwayes and altogether upon free termes he freely loved you and he freely chose you and he freely called you and still he freely blesseth you and doth good unto you and upon gracious termes he deals with you all the dayes of your life in all things for which you have to deal with him 6. Walk and live like a people who have such a God to be your God in Covenant Walk and live like a people in Covenant with God as your relation is different from all other peoples relation so your conversation should be different from the conversation of all other people as your condition is now higher than the condition of other people for God exalts you by making you to be his people so the word avouching signifies in Deut. 26. 18. so your walking must be better than that of other people and as your enjoyments and hopes transcendently exceed all other mens so your returns must be in some proportion answerable unto your great interest in so good a God and as God by becoming your God makes you high above all Nations which he hath made in praise and in name and in honour Deut. 26. 19. so hath he formed you for himself that you should shew forth his praise Esay 43. 21. You are a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People that ye should shew forth the praise of him who hath called you out of darknesse into his marvelous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. Which in time past were not a people â—ut are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy verse 10. Quest If any of you demand how that people should live and walk who have How a people in Covenant should walk God to be their God in Covenant Sol. I answer Such a people should walk 1. By faith in a continual dependance upon their living and giving God 2. In a singular love and delight in their good and merciful God 3. With holinesse before their Holy and Omnipresent God 4. With uprightnesse before their Omniscient and All-sufficient God 5. Without inordinate cares before their Faithful and Never-failing God 6. Without inordinate fears before their Almighty God 7. Without offence or grieving of their Loving God 8. With all contentednesse and well-pleasednesse of Spirit before their Wise and gracious God 9. With all humility before their Great and Merciful God 10. With all cheerfulnesse and gladnesse of heart before their Blessing and Blessed God 11. In all constancy of obedience before their Eternal God 12. In all the kinds of zeal for the honour of that God who hath so much honoured them as to be their God 1. You who are the people of God and have God to be your God in Covenant Live and walk by faith in dependance upon the living God you should live and walk by faith in a continual
God doth look upon the humble and contrite spirit and he will hear the desire of the humble He will prepare their hearts and cause his ear to hear Ezek. 16. 61. Thou shalt remember thy wayes and be ashamed c. ver 62. And I will establish my Covenant with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. 4. If you would have God to be your God in Covenant then you must get Get faith faith for God is a God in Covenant only with believers and there are three degrees of faith necessary unto this work one is a faith of acceptance a second Three degrees of faith necessary is a faith of dependance a third is a faith of reliance I will explain my self in all these 1. A faith of acceptance is necessary to put us into the Covenant and to finde A faith of acceptance God to be our God that is we must have so much faith as to accept of Christ and to unite us unto Christ for in that union twixt us and Christ in this relation of God to us is he to be found By him we have accesse unto the Father Ephes 2. Out of Christ you shall never finde God to be reconciled unto you nor to be your God As to Christ God first is a God in Covenant and Father in Covenant so to us God becomes our God and our Father upon our being in Christ Christ received the Covenant for himself and for all who are his he is as it were the head and the principal in the Covenant all his come into Covenant under him as in relation to him 2. A faith of dependance upon Christ particularly for his great satisfactions A faith of dependance unto God that is we must depend upon the blood of Christ and by faith offer that up as a satisfaction for all our sinnes and transgressions which have all this while kept God and us at distance and difference his blood is the sacrifice by which Gods justice is satisfied and truly untill divine justice be satisfied for our sinnes there is no hope of a Covenant to be made 'twixt God and us and therefore by faith look upon the blood of Christ and offer up that blood by faith Lord here is the blood of the Covenant here is the blood of Christ to satisfie for my sinnes and to expiate my sinnes now in this blood of his become my God in Covenant 3. A faith of reliance upon the mediation of Christ as the atonement and A faith of reliance peace and reconciliation Christ did make peace by his blood and he did reconcile us by it Colos 1. 20 21. And we who were sometimes afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ Ephes 2. 13. I know not a more exact way to get God to be our God than by getting into Christ in whom alone our re-union with God is to be found and by whom alone God and we are knit together again not without cause is he called the Mediator of the new Covenant who undertakes between God and us as you shall hear ere long he undertakes to take away all which may keep up the difference 'twixt us and he undertakes to present all which may make a reconciliation betwixt us he doth make the way so open and so clear that our entrance into Covenant will certainly follow if once we were possessed of him by faith his blood being shed for the remission of our sinnes and likewise to procure a reconciliation 'twixt God and us and therefore above all things strive for faith to unite you to Christ and then by faith plead out the reconciliation purchased by Christ 5. Apply your selves unto the Ordinances of Christ which are the means to work all these things in you and particularly this faith which is so necessary and so immediate Apply your selves to the Ordinances of Christ to our admission into the Covenant Ephes 1. 13. In whom you also trusted after that you heard the Word of Truth the Gospel of your salvation the Gospel is that Ordinance by which God makes known the Covenant of grace and by which faith is wrought to bring us into Christ and by him into Covenant with God and by which our faith is so enlarged and confirmed that at length we come to know that God is indeed our God in Covenant 6. I will adde one direction more as an help to bring us into the Covenant Seriously meditate and taking of God to be our God and that is a serious meditation of God himself and of the nature of this Covenant of grace 1. A serious meditation of God there is nothing in him to discourage you Of God from coming into Covenant with him and there is all in him to encourage you 1. There is nothing in him to discourage you from coming into Covenant with him There is nothing in him to discourage us He doth not in this Covenant treat with you for any personal satisfaction for the wrong which you have done him neither doth he insist for any goodnesse that you should work in your own hearts nor doth he except against you for any unworthinesse in you nor doth he distinguish you away for the greatnesse of your former transgressions nor yet doth deny you hope and accesse although you have a long time denied him audience unto his gracious offers nor doth he capitulate with you in your own name but by a Mediator who is most pleasing to him and prevalent with him 2. There is all in and from him to encourage you to come into Covenant There is all in and from him to encourage you with him for he doth expresse himself to be a merciful God towards sinners to be a gracious God to the sinners that come to him to be a tender God easily moved at the tears and cryes of those who would be his people to be a willing God to accept of you and to close with you and therefore he first makes known this Covenant and he first offers to treat with you about this Covenant and he makes the termes of agreement as fair as grace it self can frame them and he out of his own cost provided and sent Jesus Christ to be both the Messenger of the Covenant and the Mediator of the Covenant and besides all this he affords unto you the Gospel to work faith in you that so you may become the people of his Covenant and moreover he makes promises unto you of every thing which belongs to the making of a people to be the people of his Covenant yea and he promiseth his own Spirit to them that ask him by whose mighty operation we come indeed to be his people Truly a serious meditation of all this might conduce much to perswade our hearts to come in unto him and take him for our God in Covenant A second meditation of the nature of this Covenant of grace both as to the Of the nature of
a distance so that they cannot close that same hinders union Now there are four things which keep the soule and Christ at a distance Christ and we cannot close whiles they continue and faith breaks them all down 1. A proud conceit of our own fulnesse Righteousness sufficiency I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance said Christ And the whâ—le need From a proud conceit of our own fulnesse no physitian but the sick And the Son of man is câ—me to seek and to save that which was lost Now faith that unites to Christ breaks this partition wall and levels this mountain it empties the sinner of himself it takes away all confidence in himself and will by no means suffer him to rest upon or to be found in his own righteousnesse Phil. 3. 3. We rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh verse 9. And be found in him not having mine own righteousnesse which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ 2. A love of sin This is likewise an absolute hindrance of union with Christ From a love of sin That heart cannot close with Christ which closeth with sin and Christ will not close with that heart which is joyned to sin Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone Hosea 4. 17. as if he should say his heart loves Idols and therefore I will have nothing to do with him So Joh. 3. 19. This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light Christ is that light and he presented and offered himself to sinners but they loved thier sins and would not part with them to joyne with Christ Now faith which brings a soule to Christ hath parted that soule and sin it hath given a bill of divorce unto sin it takes off the heart from sin what shall I prefer hell before heaven shall I prefer damnation before salvation shall I for this sinful lusts-sake deny Christ my heart refuse to marry him who is the Son of God the Lord of glory the Prince of Peace the Saviour of sinners What have I to do any more with Idols said Ephraim Hosea 14. 8. Get thee hence said they in Isa 30. 22. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Rom. 6. 2. 3. A love of the world He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not From a love of the world worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me Matth 10. 37. If a man saith I will have my ease and I will have my liberty and I will have my pleasures and I will have my profits and I will have my friends and I will have my honours and I will not have Christ with any losse or crosse this man loves the world and this hinders union with Christ The young man lost Christ upon this very account Luke 18. 22 23. But if Faith indeed be wrought in the heart all this language is removed out of the way Faith overcomes the world 1 Joh. 5. 4. The Merchants sold all for to buy the pearle of great price and Moses in Heb. 11. 24 25 26. We have forsaken all and followed thee said the Disciples When a man hath faith he can be content to be Fatherlesse and Motherlesse to be friendlesse and landlesse to part with all rather than he will be Christlesse Faith sees enough in Christ though he should enjoy no more but Christ Faith will enable us to trample upon the world so that we may enjoy Christ it will enable us to break off with all and to breake down all to possesse him who is better than all 4. Vnbelief This locks and shuts up the heart that it cannot move at all to From unbelief Christ cannot see Christ nor hear Christ nor desire Christ nor give consent to Christ But faith breakes down unbelief breaks open the prison and breaks asunder all the shackles and fetters of unbelief answers all exceptions reasonings cavils delayes fears doubts and sets the soule at liberty and works in the whole soule to Christ O beloved try your hearts by what I have spoken in this particular you think that you have this uniting faith But what hath that faith wrought upon you and within you to bring you and Christ together It is not so easie a work to match Christ and the soule together nothing can do that but faith and no faith can do that but such a faith which presents Christ in that height of goodness and beauty and excellency that the soul is drawn out with that strength and vehemency of desire after Christ as to part with all to enjoy Christ c. And who hath found it thus Is there not yet something or other which stand between Christ and our hearts c. 3. Thirdly you may know whether your faith be indeed a faith of union by The acts by which the soul is brought into union those acts or workings in the soule immediately and necessarily to make up an union between a soule and Christ unto which when the soule attains then Christ is ours and we are Christs For as there are some acts which are immediate to constitute a conjugal union twixt person and person without which there is no conjugal relation between them and upon which the relation is immediately made so there are some acts of the soul immediate to the being of the Spiritual union twixt a person and Christ without which there is no relation and upon which there is an immediate relation twixt him and Christ There are two acts upon the soule when the union is made between Christ and us 1. One is an act or work of the Spirit on the behalf of Christ testifying unto our An act of the Spirit testifying that Christ is willing to be ours hearts and perswading our hearts that Jesus Christ is contented is very willing to become ours to be an Husband to us to be our Head to be our Saviour Jesus Christ doth outwardly expresse his consent in the Gospel but he inwardly delivers it unto us by his Spirit As by the spirit he becomes ours If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8. 9. So by the Spirit he testifies his willingness and consent to be ours yea and that he is ours Hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 Joh. 3. 24. 2. The other is the act or effect of faith on our behalf For the Spirit in testifying unto us the willingnesse and consent of Christ to be ours doth at the same An act of faith in a Reciprocal câ—nsent from us to Christ time work faith in our hearts which draws out a reciprocal consent from us to Châ—ist And therefore as Christ is said to abide in us by his Spirit so he is said to dwell in us by faith These
to be separated from me and another thing for me to be separated from sin 1. It is one thing for sinne to be separated from me and it is another thing for me to be separated from sinne For sin to be separated from me is wholly to be rid of it so that sin no more remaines in me For me to be separated from sin is not to love and serve it but cordially to hate it and oppose it he is separated from sinne who hates sinne Now it is not the presence of sinne simply and absolutely which is effectually contrary to union with Christ for then no sinner should ever be in Christ but it is the love and service of sin which is contrary to a union with Christ a man cannot love sinne and yet love Christ neither can he serve sinne and serve Christ But thus it is not with you for though sin be in you yet you love it not and though sin assaults and tempts and perhaps sometimes prevailes yet you serve it not And remember as long as sin is your burden your grief your enemy which you resist which you would destroy with which you will not make peace certainly you love it not nor are you the servant of it Paul who was in Christ found the presence of sin but yet he hated it and the powerful working of sin but yet he refused it and sometimes the captivity of sin but yet he bewailed it and sought to Christ for more deliverance and victory 2. There is a twofold separation from sin There is a twofold separation from sin Radical Gradual One is Radical when by the infusion of grace the heart is changed and alienated from sin The other is Gradual when by the further influence of the Spirit of Christ the powerful presence of sin is more and more mortified and subdued This latter you shall attain unto by vertue of your union with Christ But if you finde the former certainly you are united to Christ If there be but so much grace infused into the heart to alienate it from sin to change the bent and frame of the soule why this cannot be without a union with Christ for this is a new spiritual change wrought in you by the Spirit of Christ and the newnesse of our hearts depends upon that union with Christ which is made by faith and is the lively testimony of it If any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5 17. But I never found the powerfull workings of the Spirit Object O but union with Christ depends upon some mighty and powerful workings of the Spirit upon the soule which I never observed nor discerned in my soule Answered Though such a powerful work may not be discerned for the time yet it may appear by the effâ—cts Sol. It is a truth that it doth so The Gospel comes not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost when it inables a soule to believe in Christ and without the mighty working of the Spirit it is impossible to make the heart to believe And although in the present darknesse of the Spirit you discern not nor remember such a mighty working yet perhaps by the effects which may be found in you you shall acknowledge the same for the time was 1. When blacknesse of darknesse covered your mindes so that you were ignorant of God and Christ and your own condition and of the way of salvation But now there is a light set up in your minde by which you know the true God and him whom he hath sent even Jesus Christ and the salvation by him purchased for sinners who believe in him 2. When carnal security possessed your heart so that you could rest quiet in your natural condition but now that spirit of slumber and security is shaken off and your soule is become anxious and sollicitous What shall I do to be saved 3. When your heart was full of your own righteousness you were rich and increased you were whole and needed not the Physitian but now you see your self pâ—ore and wretched and naked and miserable and utterly undone unlesse you may have Christ and be found in him 4. When you were confident and presumptuous of your own power and self-sufficiency O it was easie to repent and no great matter to believe on Christ but now you finde your self without all strength and unlesse you be enabled by the strength and grace of Christ it is not only difficult but also impossible for your heart to close with him by faith 5. When you found your proud spirit slighting the offers of Christ and opposing the word of Christ and resisting and quenching the motions of the Spirit of Christ but now your hearts tremble at these abominations and you lie down at the feet of Christ and your heart is set on Christ O Lord give me Christ O Lord give me an heart to embrace this precious Christ and never to slight thy great love in Christ nor that great salvation any more 6. When you felt the power of unbelief in your hearts working up daily exceptions and hourly fears and strong despaires for ever enjoying Christ for your Christ O now this sin and that sin this slighting and that neglecting and your unworthinesse and Christs unwillingnesse and your inability and Christs command and your dulnesse and Christs silence and your desires and Christs delayes so that no hopes many times lodged within you your hearts were sinking and failing and giving up all But now your hearts are answered and set at liberty and power is found within you to break down this mighty partition wall of unbelief and against all the oppositions which unbelief and Satan can make yet to venture upon Christ and to justifie the invitations and promises of Christ and wholly to come up to all the terms and articles of Christ upon which he is contented to be yours O Christian call'st thou these no workings of the Spirit Or no mighty workings of the Spirit I tell thee that to work and effect these things no lesse power is put forth than the Almighty power of God upon thy soule A greater power than to bring Israel out of Egypt as great a power is put forth as to raise the dead I grant that when the Spirit works with the Law to convince and distresse the conscience there his workings are more vehement and strong to our apprehensions And when the same Spirit works through the Gospel his workings many times are not discerned in their time of working in that sensible and remarkable efficacy but yet when you review the whole work and working of the Spirit as to the production of faith why you will fall down and admire how ever your poore soules could against so many oppositions insufficiencies reasonings conclusions fears doubts despaires be prevailed upon and enabled to come to Christ Ob. O but union with Christ indeed by faith ever takes along with it the presence and communion of the
heard thee preach in our Synagogues Have we not eat and drunk in thy presence c Luke 13. 26. There is not any one hypocrite there is not any one formal Professor but he doth deceive himself with a false opinion of his estate and with a false assurance And there are four great Reasons why these men do thus delude themselves 1. One is Pride of heart and vain-glory they will appear not to be inferiour to any and therefore will deceive themselves to deceive others and will boast of what they have not 2. Another is the reach of common gifts which may give them a taste of Christ and of the good Word and of the Powers of the world to come Hebr. 6. 5. A taste makes them think it is assurance 3. A third is the neglect of self-examination they take things upon trust and will not search their hearts and try their ways and bring them to the light to the rule to the touch-stone to the Word they will not try their hearts by the Word nor their supposed graces by the Word nor their comforts nor assurances by the Word and therefore they deceive themselves 4. A fourth is the just iudgement of God upon them to send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye because they received not the love of the ruth 2 Thes 2. 10 11. Only a notion of it but not the love of it only the form but not the power of godliness Thirdly As many have deceived themselves with a false assurance so Many still deceive themselves How one may know he hath a false assurance many still do deceive themselves with a false assurance instead of a true assurance Quest But will some of you say that is the question unto which we desire you to speak a few words what are the discoveries of a false assurance or how one may know that the assurance or perswasion which he hath if the forgiveness of his sins is false is but a delusion Sol. For your help in this I will present unto you six infallible discoveries of a false assurance First The first is When it is a seal without any date my meaning is when a person When it is a seal without a date always hath had assurance never was there any time when he doubted of this point he was never troubled concerning it but always believed and his heart hath always been confidently perswaded that Christ dyed for him and that his sins were pardoned Why this alone may convince thee that thy assurance is but a delusion Mark the Apostle a little in Rom. 8. 15. Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Ver. 16. The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God Here the Apostle lays out three works of the Spirit with the order of his workings 1. First He is efficientè operativè the spirit of bondage to fear i. e. making us rightly sensible of our sinful and miserable condition which makes our hearts to fear what the Lord will do against us 2. Secondly Hereupon in time he is the Spirit of Adoption working faith in us by which we become the children of God and look on him as a Father with love and without any servile fear 3. Thirdly After both these he is the Spirit of assurance bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God This is the last work of the Spirit it is not the first nor the only work of the Spirit it comes after the Spirit of Adoption as that comes after the spirit of bondage to fear From this place thou mayst evidently discern the assurance of which thou boastest to be false to be no work of the Spirit who begins in a work of conviction and humiliation and ends in a work of testimony and assurance begins in bondage and ends in liberty begins in fear and ends in peace and comfort the Spirit never begins but ends in comfort Secondly The second discovery of a false assurance is this that as it hath It hath not the Spirit of God for the Author of it not the Spirit of God for the Author of it so it hath not the Word of God for the Instrument and means of it Beloved the Word of God is the Organ or Instrument which the Spirit of God doth ordinarily use for the forming of all his gifts and graces and comforts upon the soul of man I hardly know any one of them for which he doth not employ the Ministry of the Word when the Spirit 1. Enlightens the soul he makes use of the Word to convey and let in light into the soul Psal 19. 8. It enlightens the eyes 2. Humbles the heart he makes use of the Word to break the heart and to lay it low Acts 2. 37. When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts 3. Converts and calls the soul he calls it by the Word and converts it by the Word 1 Thes 2. 19. He called you by our Gospel Jam. 1. 18. 4. Brings in a soul by faith unto Christ he doth this by the Word Rom. 10. Ephes 1. 5. Raises and comforts when he strengthens and assures the soul he doth quicken it by th◠Word and comforts it by the Word and strengthens it by the Word 〈◊〉 assures it by the Word yea and recovers by the Word assurance when it is lost Ephes 1. 13. In whom we also trusted after that ye heard the Word of truth the Gospel of salvation In whom after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise 1 Thes 1. 5. Our Gospel came unto you not in word only but power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance Here you see the Word to be the means of believing and so making way for sealing and assuring Psal 119. 50. Thy Word hath quickned me but now a false assurance was never wrought by the Word which will appear plainly if you do consider three things that are usually found in men presumptuously and deludingly assured 1. They care little for the Word especially for that Word of God which doth powerfully search and prepare the heart and fit it for the assuring work of the Spirit 2. They have most peace and assurance when they keep them most from the faithful and powerful delivery of the Word and their assurance is never more interrupted and shaken and dashed than under the soul searching and convincing Ministry of the Gospel it cannot stand before it nor abide the tryal of it 3. Notwithstanding all their seeming regards unto the Word yet never is there any thing contributed by the Word unto their assurance nor further confirming or strengthening or enlarging all which doth evidently demonstrate that a false assurance was never wrought by the Word but is the fruit of fancy and a dream of our own hearts only Thirdly A further discovery of a false assurance is
aright in a contrary grief and sorrow for his mistake 3. Nor be shamed of his own foolishness Secondly It is soul loss unless the Lord break down this false assurance It is soul loss in our hearts it will end in the eternal loss of our souls I told you the last day that that mans condition is more hopeful whose conscience is filled with terror for his sins than his condition is whose heart is filled with a false perswasion and assurance that his sins are pardoned as Christ spake to the self-conceited Pharisees Publicans and Harlots enter into the Kingdome of God before you Matth. 21. 31. Or as Solomon spake Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool than of him Prov. 26. 12. So say I there is more hope of the salvation of the most doubting and most terribly dejected and distressed sinner than of the confident and falsly assured sinner why so will you say my reason is this because 1. When a person is in a troubled condition he is rightly sensible of his condition he sees that it is ill with him but the falsly assured sinner doth not see in what an evil condition he is and certainly it is a worse matter to be in an evil condition and not apprehend it than to be in that evil condition and yet to discern it 2. When a person sees himself in an evil condition there may be and usually there are fears to remain in it and cares to get out of it Men and Brethren what shall we do spake those wounded in their hearts for their sins Acts 2. 37. And the Jaylor came in trembling and cryed out What shall I do to be saved Acts 16. 30. But when a person hath deluded himself with a false confidence that his estate is good and with a false assurance that his sins are pardoned and God is reconciled unto him this man is whole he minds not the Physitian looks not after Christ and mercy and so loseth his soul Beloved this is certain that false assurance breeds carnal security and carnal security breeds neglect of Christ and neglect of Christ breeds loss of mercy and loss of mercy will be the loss of the soul It is soul disappointment Thirdly It is soul-failure and disappointment what Solomon speaks in Prov. 25. 19. Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint He is of no use or service unto you that say I of a false assurance when you come to a time of need and then expect help from your false assurance and deluded confidence then you will finde that it will be of no more strength and service to you than a foot out of joint it will utterly fail you and deceive you When the winds and the waves arose then the house built on the sand did fall Matth. 7. 26 27. So when death comes and conscience is awakened and ariseth in exceptions and accusations and chargeth guilt as unpardoned upon the soul in that day what will become of all your vain confidences and of all your foolish and false excusations they will be swept away as the Spiders web and like a dream they presently vanish into nothing Now from all that hath been said you do see great reason as to strive for a right assurance so to take heed and beware of a false perswasion and assurance that your sins are pardoned SECT IV. 3. Vse DOth the Lord promise to sprinkle clean water upon his people i. e. to apply unto them in particular the pardon of their sins with the assurance thereof Hence let me inform two sorts of the people of God 1. Those who have found this sprinkling of assurance concerning the pardon of their sins how they may know that this is the very assurance which is given by God himself 2. Those who never yet have attained to this sprinkling of assurance from God what they should judge of their estate and what they should do to enjoy or partake of the same 1. Quest How may one know that the assurance which he hath found How one may know his assurance is true concerning the pardon of his sinnes be the right and true assurance which God himself undertakes to give by his Spirit unto his people Sol. I humbly conceive that this may be discerned partly 1. By some precedently preparing works 2. By some presently accompanying works 3. By some subsequently following works of the Spirit First You may know that the assurance which you have had or which you now have is indeed from the Spirit of God By these works or qualities which By some precedent works the Spirit alwayes laies in the soul before he gives this particular assurance And there are four works of the Spirit if I may so stile them qualifying and preparing the heart to receive this impression of assurance from the Spirit 1. Humbling and mourning 2. Reconciling and sanctifying 3. Believing and relying 4. Praying and wrestling First There alwayes goes an humbling and mourning heart before a revived heart about the pardon of our sins Luke 4. 18. The Spirit of the Lord is Humbling and mourning upon me saith Christ because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor to heal the broken-hearted to preach deliverance unto the captive And Isa 61. 2. To comfort all that mourn Ver. 3. To give unto them beauty for ashes the oyle of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness c. Mark here are broken-hearted sinners and these doth the Spirit heal and here are captivated sinners and these doth the Spirit deliver and free and here are mourning sinners and these doth the Spirit comfort Why it is not reasonable to imagine that the Spirit of God will do any thing which is impertinent or improper or repugnant to his own Word but all his works within us are pertinent and are consonant with the Word 1. They are pertinent he will comfort those to whom comfort pertains 2. They are proper he will comfort them that need comfort and in the times of their need 3. They are consonant he will apply comfort to them unto whom God promiseth comfort Now comfort pertains to the broken-hearted and unto mourners for sin and it is proper for them they stand in need of the voice of joy and gladness and God hath in a special manner promised to comfort them that mourn Therefore if the assurance which you find of the pardon of your sins be a gracious peace and quietation and perswasion after conviction and after godly sorrow for your sins this is no feigned nor deluding work of fancy nor of Satan but it is the very voice of joy from the Spirit of God O when a poor troubled soul hath been laid low in the sense of sin hath gone heavily all the day with that burden is even confounded and ashamed and is ready to fail and faint and
cryes out O Lord pity and pardon and comfort my distressed soul with the assurance of thy love and of forgiving mercy for Christs sake And then the voice of comfort and joy speaks Be of good chear thy sins are forgiven thee and writes this good news upon the conscience Why this is right assurance and right comfort of the Holy Ghost Secondly There always goes a renewing and sanctifying work of the Spirit A renewing and sanâ—â—ifying work before the assuring and witnessing work of the Spirit Here I will briefly clear two Points 1. That the sanctifying work of the Spirit goes before the assuring work of the Spirit 2 Cor. 1. 21. He who hath anointed us is God Ver. 22. Who hath also sealed us Psal 85. 8. He will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints I beseech you tell me whose portion is forgiveness of sins and peace Hath the Lord promised it unto any but unto his people and who are indeed the people of God but Saints but holy people see 1 Pet. 2. 9. Ye are a chosen generation a royal Priesthood a holy Nation a peculiar people God will forgive none their sins but such as are his people much less will he assure any that their sins are forgiven but his people and all the people of God actually called into Covenant with him are holy therefore men must be sanctified before they are assured 2. It cannot be otherwise whether you consider First The Nature of the Spirit of God The Spirit of God is a holy Spirit and he will not aford his presence to any unless he first make them holy he always makes the Temple holy in which he intends to abide and dwell and if he will not abide in us unless he sanctifies us will he give us the assurance of the great love of God in Christ that our sins are pardoned before he sanctifies us Secondly You find in Experience that when the people of God fall into sin and do oppose the sanctifying work of the Spirit presently they lose comfort and assurance David did so Psal 51. if we must uphold sanctity to preserve the peace and comfort of the Spirit surely then there must be sanctity wrought before peace and assurance be spoken Thirdly A man must be in Christ before he can have propriety in the forgiveness of his sins and assurance that God hath for Christs sake forgiven him this all of you will grant as saith the Apostle If any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. Fourthly Once more Mark what God hath threatned to wicked and ungodly persons namely wrath and judgement and destruction and visiting of their sins upon them this is the portion of their cup. Now would you have the Spirit of God to misapply the Word of God whatsoever God hath threatned or promised in his Word that the Spirit of God is to apply his work it is to apply threatnings and his work it is to apply promises and his office it is to apply the one and the other respectively to the persons under the threatnings and under the promises he knows the mind of the Lord and therefore as he will not apply the threatnings of wrath unto the godly so he will not apply the promises of God to the wicked and if so then no assurance shall be by him applied unless men be holy Therefore let no man deceive himself with a deluded perswasion or assurance that his sins are pardoned as long as he remains wicked ungodly or unholy no no the holy Spirit never seals any but holy persons And there is a twofold holiness wrought in us before the Spirit gives assurance 1. One is Internal and Habitual which is the renewing and changing of the heart into a conformity with the Image of Christ 2. Another is External and Actual in the life and conversation Psal 50. 23. To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God Gal. 6. 16. As many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God Although this be true that every one who is sanctified is not presentâ—y assured yet this is true that the Spirit of God assures no man but first he sanctifies him Thirdly There always goes the believing work before assuring work of the Believing work Spirit the Spirit of God is a Spirit of faith and then the Spirit of comfort or assurance Ephes 1. 13. In whom after that ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise Rom. 15. 13. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing Mark first believing and then a filling with all joy and peace Psal 13. 5. I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoyce in thy salvation This Assertion I suppose will pass without dispute that the Spirit first works faith and then assurance and really it must be so for 1. You must be in relation of children and heirs before you can assure your selves of the portion of children Therefore the Apostle placeth the Spirit of Adoption before the witness of the Spirit as I hinted out of Rom. 15. 16. But it is by faith that we are children Gal. 3. 26 And receive the dignity of sons Joh. 1. 12. 2. None can assure himself of benefit but he who hath first a propriety in Christ union is the sole foundation of communion see 1 Cor. 1. 30. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us Wisdome Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption What faith preceâ—es assurance Quest But now the question may be what faith that is which necessarily is precedent unto assurance Answered Sol. A twofold faith is previously required First A faith of union with Christ Secondly A faith of dependance upon the promises 1. A faith of union from which results propriety that Christ is yours and you are Christs as upon civil Marriage there ensues a mutual propriety this faith doth unquestionably precede the testimony or assurance of the Spirit for no part of Christs purchase can be sealed unto you before you have a part in Christ himself 2. A faith of dependance upon God that according to his promises he will both pardon you and also give you the assurance that he hath pardoned you for Christs sake and this faith is many times put forth to believe in hope against hope Rom. 4. 18. Before the Spirit lets in the assurance that our sins are pardoned I will hearken what c. Psal 80. 8. Fourthly There always goes praying and wrestling before this assuring Praying and wrestling work of the Spirit The Spirit of supplication goes before the Spirit of assurance Zach. 13. 9. They shall call upon my Name and I will hear them I will say it is my people and they shall say the Lord is my God Jer. 30. 21 22. Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord ye shall be my
ye can do nothing Joh. 15. 5. We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves saith the Apostle in 2 Cor. 3. 5. And we are dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2. 1. Secondly There is in every natural man a resistance a contrariety and opposition to the work of holinesse Rom. 8. 7. The carnal minde is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Ephes 4. 18. Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them Jer. 13. 27. Wo unto thee O Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean Secondly That no creature can make another holy we may wish holiness to N◠〈◊〉 can make another hoâ—y others and we may pray the Lord to sanctifie others and we may direct others to the wayes of holinesse but make them holy we cannot For 1. No man can impart any of his own grace unto another he cannot divide the grace which he hath as he can the earthly estate which he hath amongst his children The actings of his grace may extend to others but the habit or quality of his grace he can no more impart to others than he can his own soul or life 2. All that we can do for others to work grace in them is but in a moral way of counsel and exhortation and entreaty and reasoning but we cannot open their ears to hear that counsel nor their hearts to receive that grace unto which they are by us exhorted nor can we expect that our exhortations should have more power to prevail with men than Gods exhortations yet these alone were not sufficient to change any sinner without some inward workings of his Spirit upon the spirits of men 3. Besides to change the heart of a sinner by grace is a work proportionable This is a work of Omnipotency with Creation and with the resurrection of the dead so the Scripture stiles our conversion or sanctification for which Omnipotency must put forth it self to sanctifie us God can do it Secondly God can sanctifie or graciously change the heart of a sinner which may thus appear 1. He hath dominion and power over the heart he can turn and command and rule it as he pleaseth 2. He hath dominion over all grace he can give it and work it in the heart of men by his Almighty Spirit and Power If he will say to the dead Live the dead shall live if he will say to the blind See the eyes of the blind shall be opened and they shall see If he will say to the deaf Hear the ears of the deaf shall be opened and they shall hear If he will say to the most wicked heart Be thou changed it shall be changed and healed for by his Spirit he can infuse that grace into the heart and with that power and with that efficacy as shall be sufficient to beat down and subdue all the resistances of sin and to renew and alter the whole soul Thirdly God doth undertake this sanctifying work in promise for his people God undertakes this work 1. That they may know that be alone is the Original and Author of all their Spiritual good No Fountain of mercy but their God of mercy and no Fountain of grace but their God of grace no Fountain of peace and salvation and comfort but their God of peace but their God of salvation but their God of comfort 2. That their hearts might be supported under the sense of their sinfulness and under the sense of their want of holiness and under the sense of their own insufficiency and inability to give themselves any holiness Though they cannot though no creature can help their hearts to holiness yet their God can and will for he hath promised it to them and he is able to perform what he hath promised and is also able and will do it 3. That he might have the glory that we may glory in him and not in our selves for what have we that we have not received Let no man take this work upon him upon a confidence of his own strength 1. Vse Doth God himself undertake to sanctifie the hearts of his people Then let none take upon him this work upon a confidence of his own will and power and sufficiency will you take the work of God out of his hand When Rachel said to Jacob Give me children or else I dye he said Am I in Gods stead Gen. 30. 1 2. So when the King of Syria sent Naaman to the King of Israel to heal him of his leprosie said he Am I God to kill and make alive that this man doth send to me to recover a man of his leprosie 2 Kin. 5. 7. So will you be in Gods stead will you be Gods to yourselves that you take on you to change and sanctifie your own hearts and yet men are frequently presumptuous in this they will change their hearts and they will become new men Is not this a presumptuous nay is it not an impossible work will you create will you quicken the dead Object But doth not God bid us Make unto your selves a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. 18. 31. Sol. The Precepts of God in this kind 1. Shew our impotency and convince us thereof they do not imply our power 2. He commands us this for this very end that we should seek unto him to work this 3. That we might apply our selves to the means through which he will work this 2. Vse In the sense of want of holiness be not discouraged give not up the work Be not discouraged in the sense of the want of holiness as impossible say not I shall never see a change in my heart my sins are so strong and my power is nothing but go to God remember that he hath undertaken to sanctifie Master If thou wilt thou canst make me clean said the poor Leper said Christ I will be thou clean Remember five things in this that God himself undertakes to give grace or holiness by promise First He intends to give what he promiseth in any Particular Secondly He is able to work it nothing is able to stand against his promise nothing can hinder it all the power of hell and of thy sinful heart cannot hinder him from the healing and sanctifying according to promise Thirdly He doth put thee but upon coming and asking and trusting He will give hiss holy Spirit to them that ask Luke 11. 13. Believe only and thou shalt be saved and thou shalt see his power Fouthly You cannot put up a request that doth more concern his own glory Lord let me not dishonour thee any more grieve thee any more sanctifie and change my heart that I may bring thee glory Fifthly He never denied any heart that was serious and fixed in desires of holinesse Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you c. I Now come
promise to give a new heart Then let the next Use Exhortation to use the means for it be for Exhortation to use the means by which every one of us may at length enjoy it For the managing of this Use there are three things I will offer unto you 1. Motives to perswade you to strive after a new heart 2. Cautions what to avoid if you would get the new heart 3. Scripture-informations what the wayes are which if you take will certainly bring you to the enjoyment of a new heart 1. The Motives to perswade us to look and strive after this new heart Motives They are these three 1. The misery of an old heart 2. The necessity of a new heart 3. The possibility to be delivered from that and to be possessed of this 1. The misery of an old heart It is such an heart that remaining under the power of it you cannot please God Rom. 8. 8. Nay you cannot but displease The misery of an old heart God you cannot but still sin against him cannot cease from sin 2 Pet. 2 14. But more particularly the old heart First Is a fleshly and corrupt heart the old man which is corrupt Eph. 4. 22. It is called the plague of the heart 1 King 8. 38. It corrupts all your thoughts and all your affections and all your speeches and all your actions Secondly Is an abominable heart the Lord loaths and abhors it as the defacing of his image as the workmanship of the Divel as that which is most contrary to his Nature to his Will and to his Glory Thirdly Is a debasing heart it makes us more vile than the vilest of creatures it makes us like the Divel it makes us his children his slaves his captives and bondmen Fourthly A prejudicing heart it keeps us off from God from Christ from all heavenly communion from all ability to do good or to receive good it holds up our distance from mercy from blessings from heaven and from all hopes thereof Ephes 2. 12. Without Christ having no hope and without God in the world Fifthly It is a deceitful heart Jer. 17. 9. It tempts you and deceives you it promiseth one thing and payes you another thing it pretends but to a little more sinning and yet it is unsatiable It tells you that it will bring you off from sinning and yet still it engageth you to farther sinning It makes you to believe that you shall have mercy and yet it continues you in a course of sinning which will lose you mercy it saith that you shall at last repent and yet it makes your heart more hardened and impenitent it gives you vain pleasures and so cheats you of all true joy it feeds you with some empty profits and thereby deprives you of all true riches it brings in sometimes a little of earth but then it makes you to lose Christ and your own souls Sixthly Is a dreadful heart It is the root of gall and wormwood and the fruits of it are terror and wrath and death and hell All the terrors of conscience spring from it all the wrath of God breaks out upon you by reason of it all the bitter feelings and all the dreadful fears and expectations depend upon it you cannot know peace whiles you live under the power of it Neither God nor Christ nor his Spirit nor his Word nor Conscience will speak peace unto you in that condition But on the contrary the Law of God threatens and condemns you and the Gospel doth as much and more and God and Conscience are all in armes against you and every judgement of God which respects your soul and body for this life and the next doth await but one word and commission from the just God to fall on you and to torment and destroy you 2ly The necessity of a new heart The necessity of a new heart You know there is a two fold necessity One is absolute without which a thing cannot be at all as the union of the soul with the body to make a man Another is Hypothetical if one would be in a well-being then such or such a thing is necessary Now you can never be in a well-being unless the Lord give you a new heart renewing grace is necessary as to that Our well-being respects either this present or that future life and newness of heart necessarily concerns both 1. For this life we cannot be well whiles we are under the curse for sin For this life and under the power of sin to deliver us from the first of these it is necessary to get Christ and to be justified and to deliver us from the last of these it is as necessary to get renewing grace and to be sanctified 2. For the future life of blessedness it is also necessary forasmuch as there For the life to come cannot be a fruition of that without an antecedent fruition of this Joh. 3. 5. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God Heb. 12. 14. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. 3ly The Possibility of getting this new heart I confess that though newness of heart be necessary yet if it be impossible to be The possibility of getting of it attained it were in vain to put you upon the seeking for it but as it is necessary to enjoy it so it is possible to find it and three things may convince us of that First One is the power of God to whom nothing is hard or impossible 'T is true that an Almighty power must be put forth to make a Creature and to make a new creature But God is able to quicken the dead and to restore his own image and to slay and subdue the power of our sins and to create in us a new heart and to put another spirit within us whatsoever he doth command and require he is able to give and work Secondly The second is the promise of God you see here that he promiseth to give a new heart and upon this condition if men will enquire of him for it as he likewise upon the same terms promiseth to give his holy Spirit to them that ask it Luke 11. 13. Now the promise of God as it includes his power to perform what he hath promised so it doth express his intention and will to give what he promiseth to give if we seek unto him and rely upon him The third is the work of God He hath according to his Word of promise given this new heart to many thousands in the world we find large Records of this in the Scripture Act. 2. 4. and we see manifold instances amongst our selves what changes he makes in the hearts and lives of men and many times of such as have been very wicked and utterly unworthy The Cautions what to avoid 2ly The Cautions what to avoid if we would get a new heart If ever you would seek for and obtain a new
a dart Spira longing for death rather than life c. if the Lord should let fall any of these judgements upon thee what would become of thee Fourthly Meditate on the patience of God and on the goodness of God Of the patience of God 1. On the patience of God who hath been so long provoked by thy hard heart and yet hath spared thee held off his hand from striking of thee hath all this while born with thee and forborn to judge thee 2. On the goodness of God both to thy body and soul thou who hast so Of the goodness of God much hardned thy heart against him hast yet every day tasted of his bounty and blessings yea and that he is treating with thy soul sends Ministers deals with thee in a Gospel way calls on thee to repent offers thee Christ and mercy and heaven and assures thee if thou wilt yet hearken thy soul shall live 2ly Practical Actions and they are these Practical actions Come and hear First Come and hear 'T is true an hard heart cares not to hear the Word yet because thou hast a power to come and hear the Word as well as to go to any other place or work use thy power rather to come and hear the Word and that Word which is most convincing piercing humbling Moses rod made the waters to come out of the Rock The Word of God is able to save a soul and therefore certainly it is able to convert and soften the soul The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and live Joh. 5. 25. All who have got the cure of hardness of heart they have found it at the Word and by the Word which is the Sword of the Spirit and the power of God Secondly Go and pray beseech the Lord himself to circumcise thy heart he Go and pray only can cure the stone in the heart he only can take away the stony heart out of the flesh nothing is too hard for him Lord Lord leave me not to the hardness of my heart Lord open mine eyes make me sensible over-power my stiffe and rebellious and gain-saying heart Object O but my heart is so hard that I cannot pray Sol. 1. Pray as thou mayst at least grieve 2. And sigh under the burden of thy hard heart cry out O that I were made sensible and that I could pray to God to be cured 3. And go to them that can pray beseech them to beseech the Lord for thee O Sirs be sensible of one who is not sensible of himself pray for me who cannot pray for my self Thirdly Look a little on Jesus Christ whom thou hast pierced that thou mayst Look on Jesus Christ mourn Zach. 12. 10 Look on him and what thy hard heart hath done unto him thy hard heart it was which crucified him which pierced him which shed his precious blood And now hearken what Jesus Christ saith unto thee O hard-hearted sinner thy sins have put my soul to grief thy sins have drawn tears from mine eyes and blood from my heart Thou hast been very cruel to me I will not be so to thee lo I offer my self unto thee and my blood unto thee it shall wash thee from all thy sins it shall make thy peace it shall save thy soul if yet thou wilt no more harden thy heart but forsake thy sins and receive my offers Methinks this cannot but bow and melt thee if this doth not what will if the love of Christ if the blood of Christ will not nothing will They say that the blood of the Lamb is that which can soften the Adamant if any thing will work on will melt an hard heart it is the blood which came from the heart of Christ Fourthly If at any time the power of God appear on thy heart in meditation or hearing or praying or affections or secret workings of his Spirit that it begins to yield to hearken and consider to relent to soften 1. Do not dash and quench these by sinning by unbelief or by wicked security 2. But cherish them work with these workings keep them up raise them up Quest 3. How may one know that he is cured of a stony and hard heart at the How may one know that he is cured least that the cure is beginning Sol. The resolution of this question hath reference unto the second Proposition viz. that God promiseth to take away the heart of stone from his people but to speak unto the question as it now falls First When hardness of heart is cured or curing there is instantly wrought a By a spiritual sensation spiritual sensation such a sight and such a feeling as the poor sinner never had the like in all his life Simile As when a man is delivered from a deadly palsie he begins to feel and complain of the benummedness and heaviness of his limbs saith he What ails my arms and my feet I can hardly stir them there is scarce life in them nor sense nor motion So when the Lord is curing any sinner of the hardness of his heart he begins to see and feel and complain O saith he What a hard heart have I what a sinful and wretched heart I have heard of a proud and stout heart of a careless and unbelieving heart of an hard and rebellious heart of an impenitent and obstinate heart alas my heart hath been and it is all this O what an untoward heart do I feel in my self to any good what an unyielding heart to any thing which God commands and an unwilling heart to part with sin what a gain-saying heart to stoop to Christ this my heart I now feel to be like the flint the Iron the Adamant no man hath such an insensible hard heart as I. This is the first evidence of the cure of an hard heart viz. the sensibleness of the unsensibleness and hardness of the heart Secondly When hardness of heart is cured or curing then the sinner will By judging of himself and sins in another manner judge of his â—â—ns and of himself so as he did never before He looks on his sinful heart as on a root of gall and wormewood and he looks on his sinful ways and doings as vile and cursed and wonders at himself what he meant to be so forward to sin and to be so obstinate in sinning and to be so desperately profane as to contend with God in slighting the knowledge of him in refusing to hearken unto him in opposing of his Word in rejecting all the gracious and saving offers of Christ O my madness and folly O my pride and misery to forsake my meâ—cies for lying vanities to pitch on hell rather than heaven to love darkness rather than light O how jâ—st were it with God to reject me who have rejected him and never to hear me calling upon him who have so often turned away my ears from hearing him when calling upon me I am the chiefest of sinners
and rebellion of their hearts there must be a mutual will and consent and agreement which cannot be till resistance in our hearts be removed that so our hearts may be made willing to comply with him and with his will and with his wayes and with his works Secondly That he may bring them all into union with Jesus Christ his people Bring them into union with Christ are a people given unto Christ from all eternity Thine they were and thou gavest them me Joh. 17. 6. And as they are given to Christ by an eternal compact so they must be given in to Christ in time by effectual vocation in a way of believing And for this reason also he will take away the hardness of their hearts which is imcompatible with closing with Christ Heb. 3. 7. To day if ye will hear his voice ver 8. harden not your hearts Thirdly That he may enjoy communion with them and they with him This is one Reason why he makes us to be his people that he might make known all Enjoy communion with them his love and goodness unto us and that our hearts might be taken up with him and set on him in love and fear and desire and joy and hope None of which will or can be unless the Lord were pleased to take away the heart of stone from his people c. Fourthly That he may bring upon them all the good which he hath promised unto And bring upon them all the good that he hath promised to his people viz. All the blessings of mercy and peace and comfort and joy of which they are not capable untill the Lord take away the hardness of their hearts Would you have the Lord to settle pardoning mercy on a hard heart and to speak peace to a hard heart and to revive with comfort and joy the soul of an hardened sinner who will hold fast his iniquities and who will not obey his voyce and will none of him This is as it were a foundation-work for the other works of the Covenant Sol. 2. Again the Lord himself doth again by promise undertake to take away God by promise undertakes it Because of the impossibility of it the stony heart from his people upon a twofold account First On the impossibility of the work without his own Omnipotency None but the Almighty can cure the stone of the heart neither Angels nor Men nor Ministry nor Self-power for the hard heart is too hard for all means whatsoever only the Lord is too hard for it he can subdue all the powers of sin and he can pull down all high imaginations which do exalt themselves and he can abase the pride of man and he can circumcise all the stoutness of the heart so that the rebellious shall submit themselves Secondly The other that his people when they are made sensible of their That men may not despair hardnesse may not despair but may apply themselves unto him who is able to work all their work in and for them and to heal all their diseases and to subdue all their iniquities Beloved a Promise of God in any kind is a singular foundation for Faith and Prayer And so it is in this business of hardness of heart if the Lord promise to take it away then the work is possible it may be done and it is likewise de futuro it shall be done As the Lord is able to perform whatsoever he promiseth to his people so he is faithful and will perform the same And both these are grounds for Faith and Prayer to go unto the Lord and beseech him and trust upon him that he will according to his word take away the hardness of our hearts Quest 3. How this can be affirmed for a truth seeing that much hardnesse How this can be since much hardness remains A difference betwixt the hardness remaining in the best and that in the wicked The godly are sensible of it of heart remaines in all the people of God all the dayes of their lives Sol. This hath been answered in part already in the manner how God takes away the hardness of heart from his people only I will adde that there is a vast difference 'twixt the hardness of heart remaining in the people of God and that hardness of heart abiding in ungodly men v. g. First Though hardness of heart in some degrees remains in the people of God yet they are sensible of it as their great evil and burden and do exceedingly bewail it and complain to the Lord of it and cry out Why hast thou hardned our hearts from thy fear Isa 63. 17. But wicked men are unsensible of the hardness of their hearts they are past feeling and their consciences are seared as with a hot iron as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 4. 2. When a part of the body is feared with a hot iron it becomes utterly stupid and unsensible c. Secondly The hardnesse of heart remaining in the people of God it It is still mortifying in the best is still mortifying and decreasing the more they feel it the more they pray against it and never give over till they have obtained more grace and strength against it untill they find their hearts more tender and pliable But the hardness of heart in ungodly men as it is raigning so it is raging it still increaseth unto more hardness ungodly men sin more and more and still oppose the means of softning their hearts and the more they do sin the more they do harden their hearts and the more they do oppose the light and means of softning the more they do augment their sins and hardness Thirdly Though hardness of heart doth remain in the people of God yet Though it remains yet They do not willingly take those wayes that tend to hardening 1. They do not willingly and advisedly give up themselves to any wayes and courses which tend to the hardning of their hearts as to the neglect of the Ordinances to the omission of holy duties to the commission of sins against the light of the Word and of Conscience 2. They do cordially use all the means to work off the hardness of their hearts as frequent self-examinations humble confessions and self-judgings earnest Prayer for more Faith and fear and tenderness of spirit and the Lord doth Cordially use the means against it graciously â—ear them in these Requests But thus it is not with ungodly men whose hearts are hardened they practice wickedness and they sell themselves to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord 1 King 21. 25. And give themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greedinesse Ephes 4. 19. And trample under feet the light of the Word and the actings of Conscience and whatsoever stands in their way to restrain them from sinning and are so far from improving any means for the removing of the hardness of their hearts that they deride and scorn at them and reject and abhor
when fervency daily degenerates into formality surely tenderness is falling into hardness of heart Watchlesness over the spirit Fifthly A watchlesnesse over the spirit or soul it is not minded observed lookt unto in its motions affections transactions as formerly but the guard is drawn off there is less fear and more security less diligent care and more loose presumption The man was wont to keep his heart with all diligence narrowly observing the passages and workings of his Spirit the inclinations of his heart temptations of Satan behaviours of every day alone and in company and accordingly did apply himself with variety of petitions to God and humbled himself for what was amiss and renewed his strength in the Lord for the time to come O but now it is not thus the precious soul is neglected the City is not watched the thoughts and affections and actions are not observed the poor man is asleep and drowsie and his spirituall frame is impaired and he considers it not 2ly The sadnesse of this condition The sadness of this condition It is an evill distemper First It is a very evil and naughty distemper an hard heart softning that is good but the soft hardning again that 's very evil Was it good to tremble at the Word what is it now not to be moved by the Word was it good to think of sin and mourn what is it now to hear of thy sins and not to be troubled at all was it good to act duties with affections and life what is it now to neglect the duties or to act them with a heavy and careless Spirit There are four things which shew this hardning to be very evil 1. The marvellous ingratitude in it that the Lord should shew so much mercy to heal the disease and yet you relapse into it again 2. There is an express self-condemnation why you were exceedingly troubled at the hardness of your hearts and prayed against it and sought the prayers of others and now to harden your hearts again 3. There is presumption in it you do tempt the Lord by it Do you mean to continue in this case then you are undone do you mean to come out of it why do you then tempt the Lord by falling into it and presuming on his grace to recover you 4. If you look not speedily to your selves where think you will this hardning end perhaps in some great desertion perhaps in some great transgression perhaps in some exceeding great and long trouble of conscience Secondly It is a very uncomfortable condition How is thy Sun eclipsed It is a very uncomfortable condition and thy Spring cut off what is become of that spirit of Prayer what is become of that excellent assurance of which thou hast so much spoken where is that sweetly excusing testimony of Conscience what is become of that joy in the Holy Ghost and that peace with which thou wast wont to work Ah! thou hast suffered thy heart to harden again and God looks not on thee as he was wont and Conscience speaks not as it was wont and the Spirit of God manifests not himself as he was wont and Ordinances smile not on thee as they were wont nor doth Providence shine upon thy Tabernacle as it was wont But instead of these thou meetest with many a sharp affliction with many piercing reproofs with many a sad item and reckoning and scourges which no man knows and feels in the sting and bitterness of it but thou thy self Thirdly It is a very formal and empty estate how may it grieve thee to see It is an empty state a fruitless Vintage of thy soul Tell me what returns hast thou had all this while that this hardning distemper hath been upon thee thou hearest carelesly and negligently what hast thou been the better for all the Sermons which thou hast heard thou prayest coldly and formally and what good hath returned upon thy soul after them thou hast had no trading all this while at heaven how dull must grace be which is not used and how decaying must thy Spiritual strength be which all this while recovers no more strength Fourthly It is a very dangerour posture though it be not absolute Apostacy It is a dangerous posture yet it looks toward it Though I will not say that it is the turning of the grace of God into wantonnesse yet it bends towards it Though it be not falling from grace and though it be not a forsaking of God yet unquestionably it is a gâ—ieving of God and a provoking of him and for which he may very far leave a person 3ly Directions in this case for recovery Directions for recovery Finde out the cause First By all means find out the cause or causes of the hardning observe well 1. What conscience tells thee in thy bed at night or in the day of fear and affliction or in a day of Solemn Humiliation or in the meditation of thy short appearances before God 2. What the Word of God hints and points at in thee at what it levels and strikes there is an arrow some time or other shot which falls into thy very heart a message that is secretly delivered in way of conviction and reproof which saith Thou art the man and this is thy way and thy doings 3. What thy faithful and watchful friends say unto thee what their suspicions and fears are and unto what their friendly counsels do tend A thousand to one but some of these things which I shall mention have brought on thee this new hardness upon thy heart 1. Either spiritual pride this hath made thee to neglect thy watch and to neglect the Ordinances 2. Or a worldly surfet thou hast been taking in too much of the world and worldly business and this hath robbed thee of thy precious time to converse at heaven to meditate to examine to read to hear to pray to confer with thy Fellow-Christians 3. Or the deceitfulness of sin Thou hast ventured on lesser sins and they have ensnared thee and drawn thee to greater sins and these have brought upon thee the hardness of thy heart again c. Secondly When you have found out the spiritual causes by which your hearts Judge your selves and repent have been hardned then judge your selves and repent remember from whence thou art fallen and repent said Christ unto Ephesus Rev. 2. 5. Nay do not stay to look when this hardning will fall off from thee but hasten but compel thy self to retiredness and to a penitential consideration of thy hardning with the causes of it and the great evils in it and fall down before the Lord in humble confessions of thy great back-slidings and poure out prayer upon prayer O wrestle with the Father of mercies for his Christs sake to pity and pardon and heal and once more to cure and recover thee Follow on to seek the Lord though he doth secretly upbraid thee though for a while he delays thee though to thy
mend the soft heart 3. In respect of the Works and Dealings of God all of them make impression on the soft heart those of mercy and those of judgement those of blessing those of affliction they all work kindly Fifthly The Author and Cause of all this is God himself Job 23. 16. God is the Author of it God maketh my heart soft Zach. 12. 10. They shall look on him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn c. The Lord doth give this soft and tender heart when he doth effectually call and convert a sinner as you may see in Pauls conversion and thus you see what the heart of flesh is what a soft and tender heart is SECT II. Quest 2. NOW to the second Question How it may appear that the people of How this appears God are people of soft and tender hearts First By Instances all the Scripture over I will mention some David was By Instances a godly man and he was a man of a soft and tender heart when he did cut off the lap of Sauls garment his heart smote him as soon as Abigal spake with him he was with-drawn from his rash and dangerous resolution Nathan spake but one word unto him Thou art the man and presently he is struck I have sinned and that made him to water his couch with tears Josiah was a godly man and he was a man of a soft and tender heart see 2 Chron. 34. 27. Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self before God when thou heardest his words against this place and against the Inhabitants thereof and humbledst thy self before me and didst rent thy cloaths and weep before me c. Joseph was so both to God Gen. 39. 9. How can I do wickedness c and to Man How tender to his father and brethren Job was so and so was Peter on whom one look of Christ did work so kindly that he went out and wept bitterly What should I speak of Jehoshaphat Hezekiah Nehemiah Ezra Daniel or of Paul or of the Corinthians 2 Cor. 3. 3. Ye are the Epistle of Christ written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart nay see more of this softness and tenderness 2 Cor. 7. 11. Behold this same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what fear yea what vehement desire c. Secondly By Practice and there are eight things appearing in their By Practice practice which do shew that they are persons of soft and tender hearts First Quick apprehensions even of a frown and of Gods displeasure afar Quick apprehensions off in the beginnings in the threatnings in a with-drawment in any stop or estrangedness of communion and visits and unusualness in these cases presently the heart of them begins to misgive and fear Is all well is not the Lord angry He looks not on me I hear not from him as formerly Have not I offended him c Secondly Easie convictions A reproof saith Solomon Prov. 17. 10. entereth Easie Convictions more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool and so doth any conviction if the people of God have sinned Christs look to Peter Nathans word to David sometimes a glance an hint a passage in a Sermon or in Discourse is enough for conscience is very tender and takes presently and yields and confesseth c. Great griefs for lesser trespasses Thirdly Great griefs for lesser trespasses Great sins trouble not an hard heart Simile no more than the nettles and thorns do the hardned hand but little sins do exceedingly trouble the hearts of the godly being soft and tender Simile if a mote fall into the eye it causeth vexation because the eye is tender the omission of duty the coldness of performance distraction in services vain and idle thoughts unprofitable words losing of time sit heavily upon the hearts of Gods people c. Fourthly Special care of sure warrant for special actions They must have Care of sure warrant for special actions a light and a voice going before them This is the way Walk in it May I do this and may I do that Doth the Lord command such a work and doth he enjoyn me and am I sure and clear that I do not transgress if I should venture upon it Fifthly Wise Caution in doubtfuls Where if the work or way seems doubtfully Caution in doubtfuls good or doubtfully evil the godly person makes a pause a stand a stop he dares not to act boystrously if it be but a perhaps it is evil but a perhaps God may be dishonoured or his Gospel prejudiced he will abstain untill he gets more light to clear his steps as Job offered sacrifice in the case of perhaps Sixthly Present obedience When God commands no delays no shufflings Present obedience no consultings with flesh and blood their hearts are indeed at Gods command I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments Psal 119. 60. You need not use many arguments and perswasions to the people of God a word of Gods command is of easie authority c. Seventhly And Choice obedience they would serve the Lord with their spirits Choice obedience Rom. 1. 9. and seek him with their whole hearts Psal 119. 10. and serve him acceptably with reverence and godly fear Hebr. 12. 28. and love him with all their might Eighthly Earnest supplications that they might not offend or if they have Earnest supplications offended that they might not offend so David Keep thy servant from presumptuous sins Psal 19. 13. Let not any iniquity have dominion over me Psal 119. 133. And in case of offence O take away iniquity I have sinned I have done exceeding foolishly O Lord forgive be merciful unto my transgressions heal my back-slidings return in mercy speak peace whence is all this but from the tenderness of their hearts Simile they cannot live out of doors under frowns having any difference 'twixt their God and their souls no more than the tender wife or child c. Quest 3. Why the Lord gives a heart of flesh a soft and tender heart to his Why God gives a heart of flesh Four reasons of it people Sol. The Reasons may be these which I will but mention First God will teach them they shall be taught of God and write his Law in their inward parts Ergo. Secondly His people must be his servants they must serve the Lord their God be at his command to do his will and his work Ergo. Thirdly They must be like unto their God and Father and have a nature answerable to his nature God is a God of very merciful nature very tender and gentle easie to be entreated and if I may so say to be wrought on sometimes a prayer works on him sometimes a tear sometimes
and to rest on his Arm acknowledging that our standing and safety is not in our strength but in the presence and influence of his grace 2ly The Means how to compass a soft and tender heart The Means First You must go to the Lord by Prayer for it a sinner can harden his own Beg it by prayer heart but God only can soften the heart If four things were wrought in the heart it would be soft and tender viz. 1. An experimental Sensation 2. A mournful Humiliation 3. A spirit of Fear 4. An yieldingness and plyableness of the heart to the will of God Object True will some say but who can work these things in the heart Sol. That can God and he hath promised to work every one of them in our hearts if we do earnestly and unfeignedly seek him 1. He can make us to see to feel to remember to consider our sins and our doings which have not been good Job 34. 32. That which I see not teach thou me c. Job 13. 26. Thou makest me to possesse the iniquities of my youth Ezek. 16. 61. Then shalt thou remember thy wayes and be ashamed 2. He can make the heart mourning and humbling and lamenting Zac. 12. 10. They shall look on him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn c. Ezek. 7. 16. All of them mourning every one for his iniquity 3. He can put his fear in their hearts Jer. 32. 40. I will put my fear in their hearts And Hose 3. 5. They shall fear the Lord and his goodness 4. He can make the heart yielding and plyable unto his Word and Will Psal 68. 18. Thou hast received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell amongst them Acts 9. 6. Lord what wilt thou have me to do Jer. 31. 33. I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Secondly You must to his Word which is the hammer to break and the fire to Attend the Word melt the heart Acts 2. 37. When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we do 2 Chron. 34. 27. Thou diddest humble thy self before God when thou heardest his Word c. Object But many men hear the Word and that a long time and yet their hearts are not at all softned by it therefore it cannot be a means to soften the heart Sol. I answer 1. It is true that many men do hear the Word and for many years and are not softned but their hearts are more hardned under it nevertheless this induration comes not from the Word which is a means to soften but from the pride and perverseness of the hearts of men who do hear the Word but will despise and reject the Word 2. It is also true that though many men have not their hearts softned by the Word yet many others have their hearts softned by it Simile as although many who take Physick are nothing better by it yet many who do so are recovered by it and this we find by experience that though the Word be the savour of death unto death unto some yet it is the savour of life unto life unto others And as we must not conclude that the Word is not the means of saving faith because all that hear the Word do not believe so neither must we deny the Word as a means to soften the heart because many who do hear it do remain hardned but if we find First that God hath instituted his Word for such a purpose and end Secondly That God hath blessed his Word and made it effectual to that purpose Thirdly Doth call even sinners to come and attend that they may attain that blessing depending upon this Word And lastly that without the attendance upon the Word there is no enjoyment of that softness of heart but a greater access and confirmation of hardness of heart Thence we may confidently conclude that the Word of God is a means to soften the heart But 3. You must know that the efficacy of spiritual means doth not depend upon the meer presence of the means but upon the concomitancy and influence of the Spirit of God who sometimes doth put forth his power through those means and sometimes doth not so The Word by its own natural and proper vigour doth not convince nor convert nor soften the heart for then every one that hears it should be convinced and converted and softned nor then should it be a means but a principal efficient but those effects it doth work on all who hear it when the Spirit of God comes with the Word unto their hearts in his mighty power working that grace in us which the Word commands from us And therefore when we come to hear the Word to have our hearts softned we should look on the Word as the means but withall on the Spirit of God as the principal cause who works that effect by the Word nor should we ever hear the Word without special prayer and requests that the Lord would by his Spirit make his Word a lively and effectual means of knowledge of faith of all grace unto us and if we did do so the Lord would be found of us and he would give this softness of heart which he promiseth in his Covenant Thirdly If you would have softness of heart you must then get newness of Get newnesse of heart heart Your hearts can never be softned untill they be renewed and if they were renewed certainly they would be softned The old heart is an hard heart and the new heart is a soft heart You may as well expect that a dead man should weep and mourn and go and come as that an old sinful heart dead in trespasses and sins should be a soft and mournful heart for sins or be willing and ready to obey the will of God why hardness in all the causes of it and in all the effects of it is predominant and raigning in an unconverted graceless heart But if the heart were once changed by renewing grace then softness must needs fall into it Forasmuch as the change made by renewing grace brings into the soul another nature quite contrary to our sinful nature and other principles quite contrary to all our old principles Light contrary to darkness and humblenesse contrary to pride and yieldingness contrary to stubbornnesse and softnesse contrary unto hardness Fourthly if we would have softnses or tenderness of heart then we must get Faith for faith is indeed the foundation of a soft and tender heart and the Get Faith more of Faith the more of tenderness Quest What Faith will some say Sol. I answer a Faith 1. Of Knowledge or Credence that God is that he is a great God the living God the Almighty God the dreadful God most knowing most holy most righteous and faithful who will be so to us as his Word
Joh. 14. 23. If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come and make our abode with him Ver. 16. The Father shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever The Father dwells in us 2 Cor. 6. 16. I will dwell in them The Son dwells in us Ephes 3. 17. Christ dwells in your hearts by Faith The Spirit dwells in us Rom. 8. 11. Fourthly That all the people of God have the Spirit of God may plainly appear by the works â—f the Spirit which are to be found in every one of them 1. They are sanctified by the Spirit Ye are sanctified by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. 11. 2. They are led by the Spirit As many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God Rom. 8. 14. 3. They are upheld and strengthened by the Spirit Psal 51. 12. Vphold me with thy free Spirit Ephes 3. 16. To be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man 4. They are partakers of the first fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8. 23. Our selves have the first fruits of the Spirit 5. They are helped by the Spirit Rom. 8. 26 The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities and the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered 6. They are taught by the Spirit Joh. 14. 26. The Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things 7. They are comforted by the Spirit Acts 9. 31. They walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost 8. They are sealed by the Spirit Ephes 1. 13. In whom after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise Quest 3. Why doth the Lord put his Spirit within every one of his Reasons of it people Sol. There may be assigned six Reasons for it viz. 1. Necessity 2ly Congruity 3ly Conformity 4ly Excellency 5ly The love of God 6ly The purchase of Christ First Necessity The presence and enjoyment of the Spirit is necessary for The necessity of it them in many respects 1. For applying of Christ unto them and for the applying of them unto Christ For applying Christ that there is a conjunction or union between Christ the Head and his Mystical body the Church is an unquestionable truth And how Christ who locally in heaven should be joyned or united to his Church here on earth this cannot be done but by the Spirit who doth knit or joyn Christ to us and us to Christ as really as the head is joyned to the body and as the body is joyned to the head But take the instance in any particular believer that Christ is his and he is Christs it is certain but how comes Christ to be his what is that on Christs part which makes this union it is the Spirit and none but the Spirit and what is it on our part which makes this union it is faith and it is caused by the Spirit So that the Spirit is necessary to this union on either part on Christs part to apply or unite him to us and on our part in causing faith which applyes and unites us to Christ And unto this reciprocal union the Spirit is such a necessary agent that without him there cannot possibly be any union at all No man can be united to Christ but by the Spirit neither can Christ I speak it with reverence unite himself to us but by his Spirit 2. For conveying of spiritual life into them or a new being into their souls For conveying of spiritual life Naturally all men are dead in trespasses and sins and every faculty in them is totally defiled and polluted and corrupted and is deprived of the glory of God nor can any man help himself in this case nor can any creature do it None can raise him from his death but that Spirit who raised Jesus Christ from the dead Therefore is the Spirit called the Spirit of life and the Spirit of grace forasmuch as he is the authour of both unto our souls it is the Spirit who quickens them by infusing the life of Christ into them and who renews them by changing of them into the image of Christ 3. For all the actings of grace Take me any Christian though endowed with For all the actings of grace all the principles of grace and great measures thereof now put him upon any particular acting put him upon believing put him upon repenting upon mourning upon any acts of obedience why looâ—â—s no member of the body can move or strive but from an influence from the head no more can we act any grace we have but by an influence from the Spirit of Christ our Head Joh. 15. 5. And we find it in experience that it is with our souls Simile as with a ship which stirs not if the wind stirs not and it stirs more or less as the wind is greater or lesser so if the Spirit of God stirs not in us our graces stir not c. For all our receptions 4. For all our Receptions Would you know any truth of God you cannot know it unless the Spirit of God give you his light to know it 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. would you be acquainted with the love of God you can never perceive it unless the Spirit shed abroad that love in your hearts Rom. 5. 5. would you be clear and satisfied in your relation of sonship unto God as your Father all the men in the world cannot perswade and satisfie as to that unlesse and untill the Sperit beareth witness with your Spirits that you are the children of God Rom. 8. 16. Secondly Congruity It is meet and fit that the people of God should have the Spirit of God For Congruity 1. They are his children and is it not meet that the children of God should have the Spirit of God should they not bear his image if they were led by the same spirit by which the children of this world are led had they not another Spirit they could not be his children 2. They are his servants and therefore they have much to do for him and they have much to suffer for him Is it not meet that the Lord should help his servants The services of the people of God which they are to do for him and to suffer for him are above all their own strength and therefore God will give them his Spirit to enable them for all their services whether active or passive the Spirit can supply them for every work 3. They are his Heirs and intended for eternal glory and is it not fit that they should have the Spirit of grace who must have the Spirit of glory Heirs of God Rom. 8. 17. Before a person comes to heaven it is fit that he should be fitted for heaven be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 12. And who
Every one of Gods people hath so much of the spirit as is necessary to salvation Sixthly Though none of the People of God in this life have the Spirit in perfection yet every one of them hath so much of the Spirit as will bring him to salvation For he hath so much of the spirit as will bring him to Christ and he who hath as much as will bring him to Christ certainly he hath as much as will bring him to heaven Again he hath as much of the spirit as doth sanctifie and renew and regenerate him and therefore he hath as much as will bring him to salvation Matth. 5. 8. The pure in heart shall see God 1 Pet. 1. 3. We are begotten again to a lively hope Ver. 4. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fades not away reserved in heaven for us SECT II Vse 1. DOth the Lord put his own Spirit within his own people Then let Try whether we have the spirit within us all of us look well to this whether we have within our hearts the the Spirit of God yea or no. O beloved think much and often of that expression of the Apostle in Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his he hath no part in Christ who hath no part in the Spirit of Christ There are four Reasons why I should press this great search and great care upon Reasons of this search you to know whether God hath put his own Spirit within you 1. Because many persons have not the spirit of God 2. Because many persons do deceive themselves with a false and lying spirit instead of the Spirit of God 3. Because many have the spirit as to many effects and works yet the spirit is not fully given to them 1. Many persons have not the Spirit of God Many have not the spirit of God They who blaspheme the Spirit First What think you of those who blaspheme and scoff at the Spirit As those Jews did at the effusion of the Spirit upon the Apostles These men are full of new wine Acts 2. 13. And ordinarily among our selves the Spirit of God is jeared derided mocked and reproached in his graces which he bestows upon the people of God O these are men of the Spirit these are the Saints your holy brethren and your holy sisters forsooth they are full of the Spirit Ah thou profane wretch unworthy to live among Christians and unworthy of the name of a Christian who darest thus openly to reproach the holy God and the holy Spirit of God! and the graces in the people of God which are the excellent faculties of the Spirit promised unto all who are in Covenant with God! Is the Spirit of God a scorn unto thee is any work of the Spirit a derision unto thee is holiness the chief of all his works a matter to be scoffed and mocked at O how wicked art thou what a child of the Divel art thou what an Atheist how deep in the guilt of blasphemy will the Lord ever pardon thee can'st thou ever repent can'st thou ever be saved who deridest the Spirit without whom and his holiness without which there is no salvation Secondly what think you of those who do despite to the Spirit of grace Who do despite to the spirit of grace of such you read in Heb. 10. 29. And have done despite unto the Spirit of grace Men do despite to the Spirit of grace many wayes 1. When they have base thoughts of Jesus Christ and his blood treading under foot the Son of God and counting the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing these the Spirit sets forth as most high and precious and worthy of all reverence and acceptation but when sinners come to despise Christ and his blood looking on them but as common and ordinary things and regarding them no more than the dirt under their feet they do now despite unto the spirit of Grace they do now prejudice and disgrace and dishonour and shame him in his Revelation and Commendation of Christ and his blood 2. When they will sinne on purpose to vex and grieve the Spirit when they know Who sin on purpose to grieve the Spirit such or such a work or way is evil and displeasing unto him they will therefore chuse to do it knowing that it is grievous and vexatious to the Spirit as they in Jer. 44. 4. Oh do not this abominable thing that I hate Ver. 5 But they hearkned not nor inclined their ears And verse the 17. profess that they will burn incense unto the Queen of heaven c. Thirdly what think you of those that either have no work of the Spirit within Who have no saving work of the spirit in them them or no saving work of the Spirit within them have those the spirit put within them The spirit is never present in any but there is some work or other of the spirit appearing in them for he is most active and working some way or other in the hearts of those where he is present and dwells Ergo. But in some persons 1. There is no work of the Spirit at all neither highest nor lowest the lowest works of the Spirit within men are illuminations and pulsations when he enlightens sinners to see their sins and moves and stirs them to leave their sinnes and gives them some trouble for their sins But many persons there are who never had any light from the Spirit to see their sins nor were they ever troubled for their sins nor did they ever find those strong motions and perswasions of the Spirit to leave their sins 2. Though in many persons these common works of the Spirit may be found yea so many works as the Spirit useth the Ministry of the Law for as Illumination Conviction Excitation Humiliation and Terror and Fear yet in them we no Evangelical and saving works of the Spirit to be found no works of Regeneration no works of union with Christ no hungring and thirsting after him no faith in him no love in him no holy sorrow no repentance no newness of obedience no walking and living in the Spirit c. Fourthly What think you of those who have in them another spirit quite contrary Who have in them another spirit to the Spirit of God even that spirit which works effectually in the children of disobedience and in whom all the qualities and works of a contrary spirit are manifestly appearing and ruling The Spirit of God is a pure and holy Spirit but they are unclean and unholy The Spirit of God is effective an humble and lowly Spirit but they are proud and lofty and arrogant The Spirit of God is meek and gentle but they are turbulent and furious and violent The Spirit of God is merciful and compassionate but they are unmerciful incompassionate cruel and bloody The Spirit of God is a Spirit of love and of peace but they are full of
hatred variance discord c. 2ly Many have a false and lying and deluding spirit but it is not this Many have a false and deluding spirit spirit which God promiseth to put within his people You read in Scripture of the Spirit of truth and of the spirit of error 1 Joh. 4. 6. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error and so you read of the Fancies and Delusions and Revelations of men called by the name of the spirit 2 Thes 2. 2. Be not shaken in mind or troubled neither by spirit nor by word c. And we are charged not to believe every spirit but to try the spirits whether they are of God 1 Joh. 4. 1. Quest But here it may be demanded how it may be known that the spirit by which How a false spirit may be known man is moved and stirred and put on and led is a false spirit and not the Spirit of God Sol. This may be known many wayes First A false spirit is never let in by the Word The Ministry of the Gospel is It is not let in by the Word the Channel or the Conduit by which we partake of the true Spirit of God Gal. 3. 2. Ye received the spirit by the hearing of faith i. e. the Word or Gospel of Faith as those who hearing Paul Preach the Holy Ghost fell upon them so c. But a false spirit comes not in that way nay it is so far from being breathed by the Word that it works in men a slighting and contempt of it as you shall hear presently Secondly A false spirit is a loose spirit persons that partake of it do pretend It is a loose spirit unto strange Visions and high Revelations and mysterious Notions but for all them this false spirit leaves their hearts unchanged and their lives unreformed ordinarily men led by a false spirit are unfound and corrupt in their judgements and opinions and are idle and lazy and vicious in their walking Thirdly A false Spirit is an irregular spirit the motions and works of it are It is an irregular spirit such as 1. The Word of God doth not warrant nay doth exceedingly condemn As for the Husband to take a way the life of his Wife and the Parent to kill the child and for a man to take away the goods of his neighbour c. 2. Neither a mans General nor Paticular calling can warrant The false spirit puts on to such works which a man may not do as he is a Christian nor may he do as he is set in such or such a private Relation Fourthly A false spirit is a preposterous spirit It fills a man with strange joyes A preposterous spirit and Raptures of heaven before a man knows Christ aright and receives him by Faith and before he repents of his sins or ever made his peace with God it is all in joy and nothing in humbling and mourning for sin Fifthly A false spirit is an earthly spirit 1 Joh 4. 5. They are of the world An earthly spirit therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them They talk much of the Kingdom of Christ and setting up of that but they pull down the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ and it is a temporal kingdom which they strive after as you may read in those of Munster Sixthly A false spirt is a disordering and turbulent and bitter spirit There A turbulent spirit are two things which men of a false spirit have been tumultuously violently railing and reviling and lifting at One is Publick Magistracy the other is Publick Ministery It is a certain truth that the false spirit is an enemy to order and peace and authority and likewise to sound teaching and the instituted Ordinances of Christ Seventhly A false spirit is a Scripture-slighting spirit This is evident in all A Scripture-slighting spirit sorts of men led by a false spirit Papists are more for unwritten Traditions than for the written Word Ignorant Formalists are more for superstitions and superstitious worship than for the worship which the Word of God requires Anabaptists and Enthusiasts are more for Revelations and Visions than for the Word of God nay they reject the Word and do close with them c. Eigthly A false spirit is a self-contradicting spirit It frequently gives itself A self contradicting spirit the lye confidently foretels and determins of matters and for such particular times and none of these prove true as I my self know c. Ninthly A false spirit is a proud spirit and extreamly impudent and consorious A proud spirit it swells a man up in a conceit of himself and in a contempt of others above all measure The Scriptures are but poor things and the Apostles but ordinary men and Ministers but a company of dogs and others differing from them in their Opinion but the fire-brands of hell c. Tenthly A false spirit is a presumptuous spirit A presumptuous spirit Many have the Spirit yet come shorrt of what they should have 3ly Many have the spirit as to divers gifts and works and effects nevertheless these do not amount to the putting of the spirit within the people of God here promised in the Text. e. g. First A man may be enlightned by the spirit he may come into a knowlede of God and of Christ and of the way to heaven c. This is the enlightning spirit yet this is not the sanctifying spirit Secondly A man may be gifted by the Spirit he may have the gift of understanding of memory of utterance of praying of preaching c. and yet not not have the Spirit spoken of in the Text. Thirdly A man may be humbled by the spirit he may see his particular sins be exceedingly distressed and terrified and he may confess his sins as Pharaoh and Judas did and yet not have this Spirit in the Text. Fourthly A man may have desires of heaven to be saved as Balaam Let us dye the death of the righteous Numb 23. 10. and the young man that came running to Christ saying Good Master What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life Matth. 19. 16. and yet not have c. Fifthly A man may have many motions of the Spirit to take him off from his evil course to stave him off from some sinful action and to put him on to a new course of life yea so far working in him as to raise him to some kinds of purposes and resolutions as in hearing the Word c. and yet not have c. Sixthly A man may by the spirit tast of the heavenly gifts and tast the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come Heb. 6. 4 5. he may be joyfully affected a while upon hearing and knowing and in some sort believing the great happiness purchased by Christ and yet not c. The misery to be distitute of the Spirit 4ly The extream miseries to be
Causally in us c. 3. Without faith no salvation He that believes not shall be damned Mark 16. 16. But without the spirit there can be no faith because that grace is the fruit and effect of his Almighty power So now you see plainly the infinite misery of being destitute of the Spirit of God Quest But how may we know whether the Lord hath put his own Spirit within How to knw that we have the Spirit of God us that the spirit of God is given to us indeed Sol. This may be known 1. By the works of the spirit 2ly By the qualities of the spirit 3ly By the properties of such who have the spirit in relation unto the spirit 1. By the works of the spirit The spirit of God is a vigorous and active and operative spirit and By the works of the Spirit when he is indeed put within any mans heart there he works in order unto the salvation of that man for unto that do all the works of God the Father as our Father tend and unto that do all the works of Christ the Son of God as our Redeemer tend and unto that do all the works of the spirit of God within us tend What are the works of Gods Spirit in them that shall be saved Now the works of the spirit in them which shall be saved are these .. Conviction 1. Conviction Joh. 16. 8. And when he is come that is the spirit whom Christ calls the Comforter ver 7. he will reprove the world he will convince the world of sinne Simile As when the light of the sun shines in a room this opens and discovers all the nastiness and sluttishness in the room so when the spirit of God comes into the heart he doth by his own light clearly discover and represent the sinful foulness that lies therein Here now I will briefly speak unto two Questions Quest 1. How the spirit convinceth a person of sin Sol. He doth convince of sin 1. By opening the Law of God unto us partly in the spiritualness of it as How the Spirit convinceth of sin reaching not only to our outward words and actions but also to our inward thoughts and affections both in the commands of it and likewise in the prohibitions of it that God doth not only command of us a Righteousness and holiness of conversation but also a righteousness and holiness of heart and nature not only that we do good but also that we be good not only that we hear him but also that we know and love and fear and trust upon him not only that we draw near unto him with our lips and bodies but also that we draw near unto him with our hearts and serve him in spirit and in truth That God in his Law doth not only forbid and condemn sinful words and deeds but also sinful desires and delights and motions not only murder in the hand but murder also in the heart not only adultery in the act but adultery also in the heart as Christ assures us himself in Matth. 5 28. Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Perfection of it that it is so precise and exact that it expects from us not this or that particular duty but an universal obedience and full conformity unto all and every particular which is required and not for some little space of our life but constantly and invariably as to all the time of our lives and if we fail either in the fulness or in the continuance of obedience at any time in any particular presently the Law pronounceth a sentence of curse against us Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all these things which are written in the book of the Law to do them Secondly By opening our sins the transgression of the Law unto us Rom. By opening our sins to us 7. 9. When the Commandement came sin revived and I died i. e. when the Law came accompanied with the Spirit of God now sinne revived now it appeared now I saw what a sinful creature and what a miserable creature I was This is certain that when the spirit of God doth convince any one of sinne he then doth by an invincible evidence or lâ—ght so set out a mans sinful life and heart that he cannot but confess and acknowledge the same and withall himself to lye under the curse of God as long as by unbelief he remains in his sinful estate Quest 2. Whether a wicked person may not be convinced of sin and if he may how then can this work of conviction be any distinguishing character that we have the spirit Sol. To this I answer First I do not make every work flowing from the Spirit a character of his What are not characters of the presence of Gods Spirit gracious presence not illumination not conviction solitarily considered by themselves alone but as concomitantly considered with other more powerful and effectual works of the spirit following them 2. But secondly there is a difference between that conviction of sin in wicked The difference between the convictions of the wicked and the godly men and that in the people of God and the difference lies thus First The conviction in wicked men is ordinarily levis mollis it is such an evidencing of their sins as doth not much afflict and distress them indeed they cannot deny but that they are sinners yet they hope to escape well enough for all this c. Secondly The conviction in wicked men is ordinarily semiplena imperfecta it is of some outward gross sins as swearing lying adultery drunkenness but for all these they think their hearts are as good as the best they are seldom convinced their sinful hearts and natures and that original sin which is the fountain of all sins and which pollutes the whole soul Thirdly The conviction in wicked men if it be full and strong it is but Judicialis it is not Remedialis it is not in salutem but proves only in perniciem for when they are so convinced either they sin more desperately against the convincing light of the Spirit or else they fall into despair as Cain and Judas and Spira crying out that their sinnes are greater than can or shall be forgiven But now the conviction of sin by the Spirit in the people of God is another kind of conviction For 1. It is deep and powerful it makes discovery of the very root and foundation What is the conviction of the Spirit in Gods children of all sins even of that corruption and vileness in the heart In sinne did my Mother conceive me said David Psal 51. 5. And I see another Law in my members said Paul Rom. 7. 23. And Ecce cor meum Deus meus ecce cor meum said Austin Ah Lord what a wicked heart had I c. 2. It is graciously effectual this work of conviction works graciously upon
them and in an order to Christ and their salvation by him for by this they see that there is no longer staying or resting in their sinful conditions but then they must and will arise from their sleep in sin By this they find there is nothing in themselves for them to rest upon for when the Spirit indeed convinceth us of our sinful condition as he doth therewith convince us of the curse and wrath so doth he at the same time convince us of our own personal impotency and insufficiency and that there is no help at home if they are there they perish By this they are occasioned and indeed do actually look out for Christ and Righteousness and Peace and Salvation by him and in the event come in to him stoop unto all his Precepts and gladly accept of him and them and with all their hearts do magnifie and bless the grace of God for appointing and setting up such a way of life for miserable lost and self-undone and self-unable sinners Secondly Humiliation this is another work of the Spirit when he is given unto Humiliation us Rom. 8. 15. Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear If they had not received it again then sometime or other they had received that spirit of bondage to fear Indeed it is a question whether any who are by faith brought into Christ are under the spirit of bondage to fear but it is I think without all question that the spirit of bondage to fear goes before the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father And so likewise is it without question that humiliation for sin or bondage unto fear is the work of the Spirit for none but the Spirit of God can work that work within us Now there are two things in that expression the Spirit of bondage to fear Whar is the spirit of bondage which I intend in that outward humiliation First An apprehension and feelling of our present sinful condition of which we have been convinced as our bondage or slavery which you know is 1. A base and contemptible condition 2ly A restrained and depriving condition 3ly A subjected and stooping condition to the will of another 4ly A laborious and toylsome condition and that upon very hard and cruel terms 5ly A vexations and grievous condition even ready to break the heart 6ly A most dangerous condition wherein our life lies at the mercy of him who hath it in bondage every hour 7ly It is a most wearisome and burdensome condition one would be most glad of escape and deliverance out of it Thus it is with a man who hath received the spirit of bondage 1. He looks on his sinful condition and on himself as vile and base and cryes out like the Leper unclean unclean like Paul O wretched man that I am 2. He looks on himself as in prison as one shut up and shackled and fettered no liberty no power to any good 3. He looks on himself as fallen into the hands of the living God and righteous God who may when he will execute his fierce wrath upon him 4. On himself as a very drudge to sin at the command of every lust and working out his own damnation 5. He feels this condition full of vexation and terror and burdensome so â—hat his very soul doth fail him and he knows not what to do with himself nor for himself 6. And oftimes in the anguish of his spirit cryes out O who will pity who will deliver me who will break the bonds of my distress Secondly A sad expectation of evil setling upon the soul which is here called fear for fear is the expectation of evil The humbled sinner lying under the spirit of bondage is farre from jollity and mirth and vain confidences he fears what the holy and righteous God who hath revealed his wrath from heaven against all ungodliness will do unto him for all the sins of which he is guilty And he fears exceedingly to dye in this condition if I dye I am damned for ever and he fears to come near to God he is afraid that God will never look on him nor answer him nor shew him mercy in a word he is a very troubled sinner for what he hath done against God and for what God may justly do against him Object But will some say Doth every one who receives the Spirit of God Whether all the godly have first the spirit of bondage find it thus with him hath every one the Spirit of bondage to fear Sol. I answer every one who hath the Spirit hath this those in Act. 2. 37. found it thus Paul in Act. 9. 6. found it thus the Jaylor Act. 16. 29. found it thus only you must distinguish 1. Of the intentions and measures of it All that have received the Spirit have not the like equal measure of bondage to fear Some drink deeper of the cup than others It is terror in some and burden in others it is horror in some it is only pain in others it is the breaking of the bones in some and only the lash of the rod on others 2. Of the duration and continuance of it Some are longer under the spirit of bondage than others are Simile As some women have quicker labour and others have stronger and longer labour So some have a longer time of humiliation for their sins than others have Some are under trouble of Conscience for many years some only a few dayes and then they meet with Christ and are eased Object But this work of humiliation cannot be any demonstrative note of having the Spirit of grace because many wicked men living and dying so have had this work of humiliation Sol. Humiliation may be considered two wayes 1. As a meere Legal and Judicial work for sin as it is a pure retribution of wrath and horror upon the conscience and one of the first fruits and taste of deserved damnation Thus I grant that a Cain and Judas may meet with it 2. As a preparatiâ—e work of the Spirit for Christ thus it is not given to any but to such whom God intends to convert and save by Christ Quest But may some reply There lies the Question How may one know that How to know which is true humiliation this work of Humiliation is not a judicial but a preparative work Sol. It may I humbly conceive be thus known When humiliation is a preparative work of the Spirit First Then the heart is troubled for the filthiness of sin as well as for the guiltiness of sin Not only because God may punish us but also because we have offended God not only because I am a guilty sinner deserving and feeling wrath but also I am a filthy and defiled creature destitute of the image and glory of God Secondly Then the heart is broken from sin as well as for sin sin troubles me and I trouble sin former sins are my burden and grief and present sins is become the
object of my hatred I hate that which hath so much provoked God against me and which is the cause of all the evil upon me I will never love nor serve it any more Thirdly Then all our hopes are in mercy alone of which we judge our selves unworthy Fourthly Then it draws out the heart to make after a Christ who only can give peace and ease and bind up the broken in heart the Spirit of God leads out this humbled sinner to Gospel enquiries and to Gospel helpers As Act. 2. 37. What shall we do And Act. 16. 30. What must I do to be saved Fifthly Thus the heart strives earnestly with the Lord to give Faith that it may be able to close with Christ and the man is not and will not be satisfied untill he be by faith possessed of Christ how he prayes how he hears how he attends and waits till it be given unto him to believe 3. Union and Conjunction with Christ this is another choice work of the Spirit apparant in all to whom God gives his Spirit Union with Christ It is the Spirit of God who perswades and inclines and draws in the broken-hearted sinner unto Christ by him is the match made between the soul and Christ by him is Christ joyned unto us and by him are we joyned unto Christ Now the Spirit unites or brings in the humble and broken-hearted sinner to How the Spirit unites the broken-hearted sinner to Christ Christ on this wise First By opening the Gospel that word of glad tidings and of good news that good word of life and of hope unto the humbled sinner wherein as in a glass he doth see the great love rich mercy and free grace of God in Jesus Christ unto such who was sent and given by the Father to suffer for our sins and to take away our sins and to make our peace and to reconcile us unto God and to deliver and save our souls and that'â— the way to partake of him and all good by him is to believe on him this the Spirit of God makes evident unto the humble sinner and withall offers him that whosoever believes on him shall not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3. 16. Secondly By presenting strong and safe Grounds or Arguments to the humble sinner that he ought to believe and may lay hold for his particular v. g. 1. The express command of God 1 Joh. 3. 23. This is his command that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ 2. The express offer unto the humble sinner and plain call of Christ Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden c. 3. The designation of Christ to this work of help and comfort Isa 66. 1. The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted 4. The promises and assurances of Christ that he shall not be disowned if he comes to him Joh. 6. 37. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out nay he shall be accepted and eased Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Thirdly by answering and resolving all the doubts and fears and exceptions of unbelief from the greatest of former sinnings and from present unworthiness and multitudes of wants these the Spirit inwardly answers and takes off by convincing the sinner that Christ must be his Righteousness and will be so to every one that believes and that our unworthiness hinders not but he that is athirst may come and take the water of life freely Rev. 22. 17. And he that hath no money he may come and buy wine and milk without money and without price Isa 55. 1. Fourthly By making the Gospel at length through his own power an effectual means of faith so that the humbled sinner becomes a believing sinner his heart is perswaded and opened to Christ and he glorifies all the goodness and kindness of Christ he receives and embraces him takes Christ for his Lord and Saviour and Husband and Head and is joyned unto him and made one with Christ and Christ is one with him This is the great and notable work of the Spirit which he works in every one of the people of God in Covenant not one of them but he is by the Spirit brought in to Christ The Spirit doth not only in a preparative way convince and humble them for their sins but also he doth in an effectuall manner bring them in to Christ whom he hath before prepared for Christ Therefore let us look well unto our selves by this may you know undoubtedly whether God hath put his Spirit within you If his Spirit be in you then you are in Christ If the Spirit be in your hearts then Faith is in your hearts If you be possessed of the Spirit then you are possessed of Christ your hearts are overcome are perswaded are drawn to Christ he hath been the great desire of your souls and he is the very portion of your soules You are Christs and Christ is yours But if your hearts remain ignorant of Christ or undesirous of Christ and careless of Christ and stubborn and opposite to Christ you will not have Christ to reign over you and you will not come to him though you may have life and you love your sins better than Christ and you will sit down with the pleasure and with the profit of the world assuredly you have not the Spirit of God and if you continue thus you shall dye and perish in you sins Fourthly Regeneration or Renovation this is another eminent work of the Spirit extant in all the people of God they are all of them regenerated and Regeneration renewed by the Spirit Joh. 3. 5. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God Tit. 3. 5. According to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost For the better opening of this I will shew unto you 1. What this work of the Spirit is what Regeneration or Renovation is 2. That this work of the Spirit is to be found in all the people of God to whom the Spirit is given Quest 1. What is this work of Regeneration or Renovation Sol. It is that work of the Spirit by which we partake of a new spiritual being What regeneration is even of the life of Christ yea of the same image of Christ and by which we are made new creatures As in every natural generation there is as the Philosophers speak an introduction of a new form as when the water is turned into aire or the are is turned into fire there is still another form a new form brought into them or as when a child is generated there is another new form brought into the matter which it had not before viz. a reasonable soul So is it in Spiritual
c. Who can pray thus but he who is a child of God but he who hath the Spirit of God to shew unto him his spiritual wants to stirre up in him spiritual and earnest desires to quicken his Faith on God and to depend on his good and faithful Promises in Christ c. Fourthly I will adde one instance more concerning the power in all who have received the Spirit and that is this All who have received the Spirit have received a power to do such works as none else in all the world can do for they are able in the strength and power of the Spirit 1. To abhor the dearest lusts which have formerly been more unto them than their lives and heavenly happiness 2. To forsake Father and Mother Husband and Wife and Children and Friends Houses and Lands for Christ and an afflicted estate with Christ 3. To prize communion with God and to take more satisfying delight therein than in all earthly enjoyments whatsoever But Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me Psal 4. 6. Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us Psal 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee c. 4. To live by faith in the times of desertion Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Job 13. 15. and in times of desolation when as creature helps and comforts fail Although the Fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vine and the labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat and the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Hâ—b 3. 17 18. The Lord God is my strength ver 19. 5. To be contented in every estate and to comply with it Phil. 4. 12 13. and to glorifie God under it O where is this power of the Spirit of God where are any great things or works of the Spirit within us I cannot pray saith one and I cannot leave my sins saith another and I can find and take no delight in God or communion with him saith another and I cannot trust on his Word nor wait upon his Promise c. Few men have any Spiritual power and therefore few men have the Spirit of God Fourthly The Spirit of God is the Spirit of liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty Liberty is a freedom from bondage or slavery and Gospel-liberty which principally respects the soul is a freedom accruing unto us Partly by price and purchace namely by the blood of Christ The Lord Jesus by his death hath purchased many glorious liberties for us he hath freed us from the Law as it is a Covenant of Works Gal. 3. 11 12. and from the curse and wrath ver 13. and from all condemning power of sin c. Rom. 8. 1. Partly by strength and efficacy this liberty comes unto us by the Spirit who puts forth a strong and mighty hand upon all the hearts of all the people of God and rescues and frees them from spiritual slavery under which they were held whiles they were in their natural condition The Spirit of God doth free them First From slavery to sin See Rom. 8. 2 The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death i. e. The power of the Spirit hath freed me out of the hands and power of sin so that it shall not command and rule over me as heretofore it is no longer my Lord nor am I any longer his servant I am delivered and freed from the dominion and tyranny of it and service unto it by the Law i. e. by the powerful and authoritative command and work of the Spirit upon this account the Apostle affirms that all the servants of God are made free from sin Rom. 6. 18 22. they are not in bondage they are not at the command of it sin hath lost its law and authority in them the yoke is broken by the spirit which is given unto them sin indeed will stirre and trouble and usurp but slavery unto it is taken away Isa 10. 27. The yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing Secondly From slavery to Satan Before we receive the Spirit of God we are in bondage unto the Divel who rules or works effectually in us Ephes 2. 2. and takes us captive at his will 2 Tim. 2. 26. as one that hath a bird tyed c. O what power hath Satan over a natural man how he fetters and shackles and binds him and imprisons him and makes him to drudge in the fulfilling of his motions and obeying of his suggestions and temptations But now when the Spirit of God comes into us he spoiles the strong man armed and takes from him all the armour wherein he trusted Luke 11. 21 22. For he is stronger than he 1 Joh. 4. 4. He leads captivity captive he turns us from Satan unto God Acts. 26. 18. Object But Satan still tempts and assaults never was man so tempted as I am Sol. Temptation is one thing and salvation is another he bestirred himself in tempting and we obeyed he now tempts and we resist He frees us from him 1. By making us to abhor his Kingdom 2ly By translating us out of his power into the Kingdom of Christ 3ly By arming us with the armour of God against his assaults 4ly By stirring us up to resist him Jam. 4 7. Resist the Divel and he will flee from you And 5ly By strengthening us to overcome him 1 Joh. 2. 13. Ye have overcome the wicked one Thirdly From slavish fear and a slavish spirit in working in this respect he makes us to serve God without fear Luk. 1. 74. that is without servile fear for there is a twofold fear There is Timor filialis which is grounded in the love of God as a Father and there is Timor servilis which looks upon God only as a Judge and hath a respect to fo wrath Now when the Spirit of God is given unto us we do not serve God tor fear of wrath and punishment and damnation but out of love and reverence and ingenuity Though there were no Law to curse us though there were no Conscience to terrifie us though there were no Hell to burn us yet the Lord our God and Father we will love and him will we serve Fourthly From slavish indispositions as averseness to what is good and indelightfulness in it They that are anointed by the Spirit and power of God it makes them ready and willing out of love and working out of love Fifthly The Spirit of God is a Spirit of truth Joh. 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter Ver. 17. even the Spirit of truth John 16. 13. When the Spirit of truth is come he will guide yâ—u into all truth SECT I. THere are divers
shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever He will be mortifying your sins perfecting your graces conquering your temptations subduing your corruptions helping your weaknesses comforting your consciences leading you on in your journey untill you come to the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls As Jesus Christ accomplished all the works for which the Father sent him he gave not over untill he had finished all of them so doth the Spirit of God who is sent and given unto us he proceeds and goes on with all the works for which he is given unto us and that is to communicate and apply unto us all which Christ hath purchased for us even grace and glory even life and eternal life Thus have you heard 1. The Discoveries of the presence of the Spirit 2ly The Benefits and blessedness in the enjoyment of that Spirit SECT IV. 3. Vse I Now proceed unto a third Use which shall be of relief to tender and Reliefe to weak Christians weak Christians who are full of tears and sadness because they can find no discoveries of the presence of Gods Spirit within them or at most very weak and feeble pulses and appearances thereof That which I would say for the support of those weak persons I shall set down in five Conclusions First One may have the real presence of the Spirit and yet sometimes The spirit may be really present and yet not discovered It s in desertions have no sensible discoveries of his presence as to his own apprehension As 1. In the time of desertions when the Lord hides himself from the soul and draws off and leaves it a while to sit in darkness and in silence in such a case though there be actings of the Spirit and puttings forth tears and groans and complaints Will the Lord cast off for ever will he be favourable no more Psal 77. 7. yet the deserted soul discerns them not in a Relative way as working testimonies of the presence of the Spirit 2. In time of great transgressions Then the Spirit as is it were in a swoon and the light appears not and confusion and darkness rise upon our graces David In great transgressions in his great transgressions looks upon all as lost and therefore prayes that the Lord would not take his holy Spirit from him Psal 51. 11. Secondly One may have the Spirit of God within him and yet sometimes as to his own thinking the discoveries may be rather that he hath not the spirit than that he hath Job saith of God he holds me for his enemy Job 13. 24. And David saith cast me not off Psal 43. 2. And the Church saith my God hath forsaken me Isa 49. 14. This is our condition in the times of vile temptation and in the time of sad melancholy and there is no grace in me no faith no love softness of heart no ability to pray all was but hypocrisie there was never any thing in truth wrought within my soul Thirdly There are comforting discoveries of the presence of the Spirit and Other effects of the Spirit there are proper and respective discoveries of this presence as to our present ways and works and needs Perhaps you have not the manifestations of the spirit in the effect of peace and joy and assurance and yet you may have the manifestations of the Spirit in the effects of mourning for sin and conflicting with it and prayer against it and to walk uprightly Perhaps you find not the presence of the Spirit discovering himself in strong and powerful actings in your souls and yet you may find the Spirit discovering himself in making you to hunger after Christ Perhaps you find not the Spirits presence in raising your hearts with his testimony and yet you find his presence in humbling your hearts for the sins into which you are fallen Perhaps you do not find the presence of the Spirit in delivering you from temptations but yet you find his presence in upâ—olding of you against temptations Fourthly There are many things which may befall us in our Christian race When we may conclude our having of the Spirit not withstanding afflictions and course which yet are not sufficient grounds to conclude that God hath not given unto us his Spirit e. g. 1. Afflictions losses and crosses in outward things you may not from these conclude that God hath not given you his Spirit Because 1. The Lord doth correct every son whom he loveth 2. The most holy persons have been afflicted Job was so so was Jacob so was David 3. These are sent for the tryal of our faith and repentance c. and for the improvement of them 2. Oppositions from wicked men by reproaches and slanders and threatnings and injuriousness these are so far from aproving that we have not the And opposition and reproaches Spirit that they rather do demonstrate his presence and work in us Gal. 4. 28. We brethren as Isaac was are the children of promise Ver. 29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so it is now 1 Joh. 3. 12. As Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his brother and wherefore slew he him because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous 1 Pet. 4. 4. They think it strange that you run not with them to the same excesse of riot speaking evil of you 3 Inward motions of sin and outward temptations from Satan They have Inward motions of sin and outward temptations Different temptations in our own hearts and do befall the best of Saints Paul found the one in Rom. 7. and the other in 2 Cor. 12. and who of the people of God is free from them 4. Several diversities upon our own spirits sometimes a lowliness a dulness sometimes great confidence and someties many doubtings sometimes rejoycings sometimes mournings sometimes an enlargedness of heart and sometimes a narrowness and restrainedness sometimes an high elevation of heart and sometimes why art thou cast down O my soul sometimes I do believe and yet sometimes O that I could believe sometimes I will not fear what man can do unto me and sometimes I am affraid and that I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul 5. Particular wandrings and sinnings when yet the course of a Christian is Particular wandrings holy and upright in this case we may neither condemn another nor yet our selves as utterly destitute of the Spirit of grace because as a course of sinning ariseth from the want of grace so the particular acts of sinning may arise only from the weakness of grace Fifthly there may be but a very weak measure of grace in a person who yet A weak measure of grace where yet is the Spirit of grace hath the Spirit of grace in truth A Child that is newly born is a living child and yet he is very weak Some Christians are but
the Spirit of God Sol. One may know that there is a true work of grace although very How a true work of grace may be known though weak By loving Gods image weak First By his apprehension and love of the image of God of this work of the Spirit in whomsoever he finds it His very soul values such a person and doth close with him and is knit unto him 1 Joh. 3. 14. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren Every one that hath truth of grace doth highly prize all that have grace counts them the excellent of the earth and is most delighted Psal 16. 3. and satisfied in the society of such Secondly By the choice of his heart he chuseth God to be his God and the By our choosing God to be our God wayes of God to be his wayes I have chosen the wayes of truth Psal 119. 30. I have chosen thy precepts Ver. 173. Although he doth not serve his God in fulness yet he doth in sincerity although he cannot walk in his wayes exactly yet in these wayes he will walk he is a servant to none but his God and traveller in no wayes but his Thirdly By the desires of his soul They are holy and heavenly and spirituall though his work is little yet his desires are great though his enjoyment ares By the desires of his soul small yet his desires are high and amongst others there are these five desires where there is truth of grace viz. 1. An earnest desire of Gods love and favour Psal 106. 4. Remember me Five desires in the tâ—uth of Grace O Lord with the favour which thou bearest unto thy people O visit me with thy salvation 2. An earnest desire of Christ a hungring and thirsting after him I will seek him whom my soul loveth Cant. 3. 3. O that God would give me Christ O that I could believe Lord help my unbelief Mark 9. 24. 3. An earnest desire to walk in all well-pleasing before God O that my wayes were directed to keep thy statutes Psal 119. 5. they do not keep them but they desire to keep them Lord increase our faith 4. An earnest desire for more grace as Paul Phil. 3. 12. I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Ver 14. I presse toward the mark A desire of the Word that we may grow thereby is a sign of the new birth 1 Pet. 2. 2. 5. An earnest desire that he might not sin against his God Psal 119. 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee O let me not wander from thy Commandements Fourthly By the conflicts in himself Though there be not a present victory By the conflicts in himself yet there is a present war in every one who hath truth of grace Truth of grace will make a man 1. To love the Law of the Spirit of Christ and to joyn and take part with his good motions and directions and commands The good that I would do saith Paul and I delight in the law after the inward man Rom. 7. 19 22. 2. To hate and oppose the Law of sin Though he doth evil yet he hates it what I hate that I do and though he cannot subdue his sins yet he will oppose them He oppâ—seth and resisteth the pride the filthiness the passions the frowardness the hardness the unbelief of his heart Fifthly By the griefs and complaints of his soul He is grieved that yet sin By the griefs and complaints oâ— his soul hath so much power in him and cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death and he is grieved that he is so low and weak and short in obedience unto his loving Christ that he can love him no better fear him no more trust on him no stronger and magnifie him no more And he is grieved that he cannot grieve that he cannot believe that he cannot walk up to the Rule of Christ and unto the desires of his soule By the endeavours and actings of his soul Sixthly By the endeavours and actings of his soul He that is weakest in grace is acting according to the proportion which he hath received Simile As old father Latymer said to his fellow-sufferer I am coming as fast as I can brother So the weakest in grace he is stirring and he is doing as well as he can he is doing his Masters will and if he could do more and better service assuredly God should have it from him and glad he is if he can mend one 3. Quest Why no Christian should be discouraged because of the weak measure Why we should not be discouraged because of our weakness in grace All grace is weak at first of grace wrought in him by the Spirit of God Sol. You should not be discouraged for these Reasons First All the graces of the Spirit do begin in weakness we are at the first but babes in Christ and then young men and strong and then Fathers 1 Joh. 2. 12. 13 False grace is too suddain and too ripe it begins where it should end and therefore it ends usually as soon as it begins But true grace is first but weak nevertheless it shall encrease Secondly It will not rest so but gets from weakness to strength and from Yet its growing strength to strength as the Sun in the firmament Prov. 4. 18. The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more to the perfect day Thirdly The weakest grace doth bring God some honour it will make a It brings God some honour man to honor God inwardly and outwardly Rev. 3. 8. Thou hast a little strength and hast kept my Word and hast not denyed my Name 1. Inwardly by setting up his will and authority in the heart by loving of him fearing of him and trusting on him though but weakly 2. Outwardly by abandoning every evil way by exercisâ—ng our selves in godliness by countenancing the rules and wayes of Christ and walking before God in truth Even the Children in the Temple cryed out Hosanna to the Son of David Matth. 12. 15. whereupon Christ applyed that of David Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise ver 16. Fourthly The weakest grace is the workmanship of the Spirit of God Not It s the workmanship of the spirit of God only our rejoycing but our tears not only our assurances but our very groans are from him Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered So Phil. 2. 13. It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure To will any good this comes from the Spirit of God as well as to do any good Fifthly The weakest grace is able to unthrone sin and dispossess Satan and to set up a throne in the heart for Christ to hold
will you weary my God also said the Prophet Isa 7. 13. So say I Is it a small thing that you injure another but will you also injure the Spirit of God Simile If a friend should help you out of prison and heal all your diseases and sores and furnish you with clothes and money and house and lands do you not wrong him in saying upon every discontent What hath he done he hath never done any thing for me Why it is the Spirit of God who hath quickned you from the dead who hath delivered you out of the power of darkness who hath renewed and healed your soul who hath begun every saving grace in your hearts who hath been your life and strength and after all this is it meet for you to say What hath he done and he hath wrought nothing for us nothing why how came you to be so sensible of your sins how came your hearts to be broken and mournful whence came those desires after Christ and grace whence came those fervent prayers and importunate cries whence came those resolutions to walk with God and careful endeavours to honour and glorifie him O Christianâ— be humbled for thy rashnesse and for thy unthankfulness and for this injuriousness done unto the good Spirit of God disown him no more and deny not any work of his any more though it be but little yet do not disown it though it be sometimes hidden from thee yet do not disown it though it doth many times work but weakly do not disown it though it be put sometimes to a stand though thou dost not in every particular answer the motions and rules of the Spirit yet do not disown the work of the Spirit condemn every sinful work which is thine own but do not deny or dishonour any work that is his Secondly By not crediting the testimony of the Spirit Beloved sometimes By not crediting the spirit we do bear witness or give testimony for the Spirit as when we humbly and thankfully confess his workmanship in our hearts saying This is the Lords doing this he hath done for my soul c. Sometimes the Spirit bears witness or gives in testimony unto our hearts he bears witness saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 16. that we are the children of God and concerning this he gives in his testimony partly by his works of Faith and Regeneration which are to be found in all and only the children of God And partly by extraordinary assurance letting in such a ligâ—t and evidence and perswasion which abundantly clears up our Relation that without doubt God is our Father and we are his children If now after both these testimonies in assurance of the Spirit in after times of darkness and desertion and temptation we call the testimony of the Spirit into question and charge it for a false delusion do we not exceedingly injure the Spirit of God in some sort to make bim a lyer and a false witnesse Object But we do not do so and we dare not do so his testimony is true only How to know the testimony of the Spirit we fear that the testimony which we have found was not his testimony but a delusion either of Satan or of our own hearts Sol. O but what if indeed that testimony was not the delusion of your hearts but the very testimony of the Spirit which you have challenged and rejected as a delusion are you not then very guilty of great injuriousness unto the Spirit And that it was the very testimony of the Spirit of God may thus appear 1. It was a testimony after deep humblings of the heart for sin 2. It was a testimony after importunate cries and wrestlings for mercy and assurance 3. It was a testimony after your believing and closing which Christ offered and accepted 4. It was a testimony after the matching of the promises with your souls condition 5. It was a testimony that filled your heart with joy unspeakable and glorious and with a love most dear and superlative and with most humble and serious care and diligence how to walk more exactly and chearfully to the praise and honour of this most gracious God If it was thus it was no delusion it was indeed the testimony of the Spirit and you have dealt unkindly and unworthily thus to requite him and thus to disgrace his precious testimony Thirdly By disregarding and slighting the Ordinances of Christ Some people do think that because they have the Spirit therefore there is no need of Ordinances By slighting Christs Ordinances at least for them perhaps they hold that the Ordinances may be useful for others who as yet have not received the Spirit but yet they are needless for them who have received the Spirit And three places of Scripture they alledge for this Jer. 31. 34. They shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them saith the Lord. 1 Joh. 2. 27. The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lye and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him 2 Pet. 1. 19. We have also a most sure Word of prophesie whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place untill the day dawne and the day-starre arise in your hearts With your favour I will speak something in 1. Opposition to this Opinion it is the Opinion of the Libertines of old and of some now amongst our selves The Libertines answered who desire and endeavour to subvert the Ministry and the Ordinances of preaching 2ly In resolving the true meaning of those places of Scripture First I affirm that Gods giving of his Spirit unto his people was never intended by him to put a period unto any Evangelical Ordinance or to render them useless unto any of his people this may be demonstrated thus First From the scope of the Scriptures All Scripture saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 3. 16. is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Iâ—struction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works ver 17. If the Word of God be given for these ends For Doctrine to teach us the matter of faith for Reproof to convince errors for Correction to condemn sin for Instruction to shew us our duties and to make us perfect To beget us Jam. 1. 18. Of his own will begat he us with the Word of truth To build us up Acts 20. 33. I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified then certainly the presence of the Spirit and the Ministry of the Word are not
would not seem unto us a servile burden but a gracious priviledge and special favour that we might freely approach to God and be imployed as servants unto him Object Onely here take heed of a mistake that you do not look on love to God as the rule of your obedience but only as a sweet inward spring or principle of it Sol. Some who would cancel the Law as to believers would make our Love is not the only rule of our obedience love to God the rule of all our obedience to God but this is not sound doctrine For 1. That which is a part of our obedience cannot be the rule of our obedience Now love is a part of a mans obedience as well as faith and fear c. Antinomians confuted 2. No rule of mans obedience must be imperfect but perfect and full now our love is imperfect and therefore it cannot be the rule of our obedience Get humble and tender hearts Sixthly If you would walk in Gods statutes and do them then you mâ—st gâ—â— humble hearts and tender hearts Simile It is with our hearts as with mettals digged out of the earth which are impure and hard and as so of little or no use but when they are melted and purged they are then capable of being useful and being serviceable vessels Thus it is with our hearts whiles they are unbroken and hard and proud they are rebellious disobedient reprobate to every good work Exod. 5. 2. Pharaoh said Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to leâ— Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Psal 119. 21 Thoâ— hast rebuked the proud that are cursed which do erre from thy Commandements Jer. 44. 16. The proud men Chap. 43. 2. spake As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee But when the Lord gives unto men humble and tender hearts now they will close with and submit unto Gods statutes and to a walking in them Deut. 33. 3. All his Saints are in thy hand and they sate down at thy feet every one shall receive of thy word Lord said Paul when the pride and rage of his spirit was off and himself himself what wilt thou have me to do Acts. 9. 6. You read in James 4. 6. that God gives grace to the humble And Psal 25. 9. The meek will he teach his way c. Hence saith Christ Matth. 11. 29. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart intimating unto us that there is no taking upon us the yoke of obedience untill we first learn of him the lesson of lowliness of heart An humble and tender heart is wholly at Gods disposing and ready for his service most affraid to offend and dishonour him and most ready to give audience to every part of his will and to to do it and to bring him honour and glory in the whole course of a mans life Beseech the Lord to give you this humble and tender heart without which you will neither regard God nor his statutes 2. Quest What mistakes are we to take heed of in walking in Gods statutes or What we must take heed of in walking in Gods wayes in the performance of our duties of obedience unto him Sol. There are these things which you must take heed of in your walking and in your performance of duties First You must take heed of formality and resting in the opus operatum in the meere doing of duties commanded There are two parts of duties there is Of Formality the body of it and there is the soul of it there is the work and there is the manner of working As in Prayer there are the words of prayer and there is the Spirit of Prayer and in hearing of the Word there is the meer hearing and there is the right hearing or the spiritual hearing of the Word Now we must take heed that we content not our selves with the meer outward doing of any duty because 1. God requires more then the meer outward work My son saith he give God requires the heart me thy heart Prov. 23. 26. And Christ saith that God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth Joh. 4. 4 2. God Abhors and rejects the meer outward service Isa 29. 13. Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me and have removed their hearts far from me and their fear towards me is taught by precepts of men Ver. 14. therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvellous worke amongst this people a marvellous work and a wonder for the wisdom of the wise men shall perish c. Now there are four things which demonstrate that men do perform duties in a formal manner and content themselves with the meer opus operatum Why do men rest in the work done It s an easie service 1. One is the facility of their obedience To perform any one duty to make any one prayer in a spiritual manner will cost us much care and watchfulness many workings of heart many workings of faith and fear but to perform duties in a carnal formal way costs a man nothing if he can but read or say his prayers this is all and there he rests 2. A second is the deadness of the services It is a service without any heart It s a dead service at all the understanding acts not and the will acts not and the affections act not in it the man confesseth sin without any grief of heart for sin and even prays for grace and mercy without any longing desires or faith in Christ or the promises to obtain it 3. A carelesness of service The formal man minds not God nor any communion A careless service with him and minds not prayer and minds nothing beyond prayer whether his own heart be right or no and whether God regards him and answers him this he minds not 4. A fruitlesness of doing Nothing comes of the formal work of duty the man saith a prayer but no good comes of it and he hears but no good comes of it A fruitless service still he prayes and still he hears and still he reads and still he is drunk and still he swears c. Secondly You must take heed of neutrality in walking in Gods statutes neutrality Take heed of neutrality is an indifferent participation of both extreams it hath something of the one and something of the other as luke-warm water hath something of heat and something of cold So the man who is guilty of neutrality in walking in Gods statutes he hath one foot in the wayes of God and another foot in the wayes of wickedness he halts between two Opinions he is not only for God nor only for Baal 1 King 18. 21. he is not altogether for Gods commands nor
salvation As are the sinews of all Religion As most concern our selves and families That concern righteousnesse and mercy That concern the avoiding of greater sins We should do all affectionately in or to observe Sol. I humbly conceive that our special care should be First Of those which do principally and immediately respect Gods Glory Summa ratio in summo fine Secondly Of those which do most absolutely and necessarily respect our own salvation as Regeneration Repentance Holiness Faith Thirdly Of those which are the bond and sinews of all Religion upholding it in the power and practice of it as the sanctifying of the Sabbath Fourthly Of those which do most concern our selves and such as are under our charge as family-duties Fifthly Of those which do require and enjoyn righteousness and mercy unto others and preserve publick society Sixthly Of those which do concern the greater sins which should be most carefully avoided Fourthly we should walk in Gods statutes and keep and do them affectionately we should affect the acts of obedience and be affected in them Suppose that a man did walk up to every statute of God yet if this were not done affectionately all were nothing Now there are four affections with which we should perform every service or duty that we do unto God 1. Love and delight 2ly Joy 3ly Fear 4ly Zeal First With Love and Delight We must love the Lord and his statutes and the With love and delight duties which he requires from us and take delight in obeying and doing his will Psal 119. 97. O how I love thy Law Ver. 167. My soul hath kept thy testimonies and I love them exceedingly Psal 40 8. I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart Secondly With joy and alacrity Psal 119. I have rejoyced in the way of With joy and alacrity thy testimonies as much as in all riches Psal 100. 2. Serve the Lord with gladness Our walking in Gods statutes should be our meat and drink we should find more satisfaction and soul contentment and refreshing when we are doing the will of God and are enjoying communion with him than we do find or take in any earthly enjoyment whatsoever Thirdly With fear Serve the Lord with fear Psal 2. 11. when ye are a performing With fear any duty to God ye must do it with a 1. Reverential fear Thou shalt fear this glorious and fearful Name the Lord A reverential fear thy God Deut. 28. 58. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him Psal 89. 7. Pray and hear with fear and trembling 2. Humble fear of our own sufficiency and of our own performance left Humble fear any thing should fall in with our duties by which God may be offended and our service of him may miscarry c. Fourthly With zeal or fervor of spirit The people of God must be zealous With zeal of good works and zealous in good works fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12. 11. It was said of Jehoshaphat that his heart was lifted up in the wayes of the Lord 2 Chron. 17. 6. And of Josiah that he made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his Commandements and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul c. 2 Chron. 34. 31. See also 2 King 23. 25. Wrestling and striving in Prayer attend earnestly in hearing We must not walk in Gods statutes with careless sloathful indifferent spirits but with heightned and lively and enlarged spirits doing his will with all our might and strength bringing out all the might and power that we have in his service stir up our graces and our hearts Fifthly We should walk in Gods statutes uprightly and sincerely Gen. 17. 1. Walk before me and be thou upright And 1 Kin. 3. 6. David my Father walked Walk in them uprightly before thee in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with thee Isa 38. 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart c. 2 Cor. 1. 12. Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world Quest But here now is the great Question how one may know that he walks Signs of sincerity uprightly in Gods statutes Sol. There are 〈◊〉 discoveries of this First The prevalent motive which alone sufficeth to his obedience and that If we obey because God commands is the will or command of God if a man be upright and walk with an unright heart then he will and doth act and move upon the sole account of Gods command that alone is reason enough and will prevail with him for obedience There are several Motives which induce men to do good works some do respect our selves and are drawn from a respect to our credit and profit as do such a work and perform such a duty and you shall have honour amongst men by it and you shall gain much by it these considerations are the prevailing Motives which men of unsound hearts to some things which God requires as it was with Jehu c. And some are drawn from God himself only from his Commandement and this is sufficient and this prevails with men of upright heart Psal 119. 4. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts dilgently Ver. 5. O that my wayes were directed to keep thy statutes Mark how his heart is drawn out to obedience upon the meer command of God Thou hast commanded us c. Isa 2. 3. He will teach us of his wayes and we will walk in his paths Mark there is no more considered to move to walk in his paths than this he will teach us of his wayes i. e. he will make us to know that this or that is his will and command concerning us Paul relates that it was the earnest prayer of Epaphras for the Colossians that they might stand perfect and be filled with all the will of God Col. 4. 12. It is not Compleri but Repleri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some look upon that word as Metaphorical to be filled with the will of God as the sails of a ship are filled with wind which is enough to carry the ship in voyage so it is enough when the will of God fills our hearts and that carries them out to duty and David hath a singular expression in Psal 119. 6. When I have respect unto all thy Commandements you know that to have a respect unto a thing is this when that of all other swayes most with us as when a Master commands a servant he will do such a business because he respects him and at his command he will go and come though he will not at the command of any other this was Davids
do much more but all those gracious experiences without any assistance and influence from God will not be sufficient unto you Secondly We should especially depend upon God for his strength and sufficiencie then when we do meet with the greatest strength of opposition to the performing of any good work or works as David in another case when the people spake of stoning him he did then encourage himself in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30. 6. Or as Jehoshaphat when that great multitude came against him and God promised him deliverance said he Believe in the Lord your God and ye shall be established 2 Chron. 20. 20. So should we do when we meet with strong â—ppositions and hinderances when we are to work or when we are working the work or works commanded us of God we should now by faith look up to God and rest on his arme of gracious power to uphold our hearts and to cary us out unto our dutiful performances How many temptations do we many times meet with from Satan and how many threatnings and scoffs and reproaches and incounters do we meet many times with from ungodly men and from carnal parents and friends and from secret enemies of â—od and his wayes All which do tend to discourage our hearts and to weaken our hands and to interrupt or divert our feet from walking in Gods wayes and from doing of the works which God requirs of us in our places Now this is the time to look up to God and to trust on him to encourage and enable the heart to serve him to hold on in walking before him with all faithfulness wisdome zeal and patience now make use of that promise in Esa 41. 10. Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismaid for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness Zech. 4. 6. This is the wâ—rd of the Lord unto Zorobabel saying Not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts Ver. 7. Who art thou O great mountain before Zorobabel thou shalt become a plain and he shall bring forth the head-stone thereof with shoutings crying Grace grace unto it Thirdly We should especially depend on God for his strength when we are most sensible of our own indispositions weaknesses streitghtened and insufficient hearts How often do we finde these things upon us how apt are we under them to shrink to complain to give over O but our work when we are not able to do our work is by faith to look up to God to quicken and enable us to do his work Psal 119 159. Consider how I love thy precepts quicken me O Lord according to thy loving kindness Esa 45. 24. Surely shall one say In the Lord have I righteousness and strength even to him shall men come Object But I have no might or power at all to do any thing Sol. Consider now that precious promise in Esa 40. 29. He giveth power to the faint and unto them that have no might he encreaseth strength Phil. 2. 13. He worketh in us c. Object But I have lookt up with such weak desires and with such a weak faith as I have and yet finde no more strength Sol. Read on ver 31. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength c. So Psal 31. 24. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your hearts all ye that hope in the Lord. Object But did any servant of God ever finde him coming in with strength when sensible of his own weakness and calling upon him for help and strength Sol. See two places of Scripture instances for this Psal 73. 26. My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion fore ver Psal 138. 3. In the day when I cried thou answeredst me and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul Fourthly We should especially depend on God for strength when we are called to do any work wherein the glory of God and the good of his Church and our own salvation are more singularly concerned First These are services and works of the highest and of the greatest consequence there is no work whatsoever wherein we can deal which is or can be of a higher nature for excellencie necessitie felicitie Secondly Miscarriages under these would prove very woeful and ruinous that Gods glory should faile in my hand or the good and safety of the Church in my hand and my own soul should perish by my own neglect Thirdly And of all works these do meet with the greatest opposition from without our selves and from within our selves the gates of hell are opened c. Yet for these hath God most of all engaged his power and presence and strength as you may see in the varietie of his promises and in the glory of his providences therefore when you are called to do any work which hath a neer and special respect to these things fall down and pray look up and depend as he said de deo nil sine deo we can know nothing of God without God so say I pro deo nil sine deo we can do nothing for God without God nothing for his glory without his assistance O Lord the work which I am now endeavouring thou knowest that it concerns thy name and glory the good and welfare of thy Church which is the apple of thine eye and the dearly beloved of thy soul and it respects mine own eternal salvation which thou wouldst have me work out with fear and trembling good Lord leave me not hide not thy self but appear in thy strength for the carrying on of these works come in with thy wisdom to direct me and with thy grace to quicken me and with thy spirit to lead and uphold and prosper me Fifthly When the work is extraordinary and universal of much difficultie and danger and requires more then ordinarie hight of spirit and courage and resolution now is your time not to consult with flesh and blood not to consider your own proportion of gifts and abilities but by faith to look up to him who commands the work and promiseth his assistance and presence for the work Exod. 3. 10. I will send thee unto Pharoah saith God to Moses that thou mayst bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt ver 11. And Moses said to God Who am I that I should go unto Pharoah and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt Ver. 12. And he said Certainly I will be with thee Josh 1. 5. As I was with Moses so I will be with thee I will not faile thee nor forsake thee Beloved as the weakest duties are above our strength so the greatest and hardest are below Gods strength it is not what you are but what your God is who commands you and what he will be unto you who hath promised his own power and strength Sixthly