office of Conscience clear beyond all Objection And thus much I thought fit to premise concerning the Nature of the Light here spoken of by our Saviour and Intended for the subject of the present discourse Which Light as it is certainly the great and Sovereign Gift of God to Mankind for the Guidance and Government of their Actions in all that concernâ— them with reference to this Life 〈◊〉 a better so it is also as certain that it is Capable of being turned into Darkness and thereby made wholly useless for so Nobl 〈…〉 Purpose For so much the Words of the Tâ—â— Import nor do they Import only bare possibility that it may be so but aâ— so a very high Probability that witâ—â—â—â— an extraordinary Prevention it will bâ— so For as mâ—ch as all Warning in thâ— very Reason of the Thing and according to the Naturâ—l force of such expressions implies in it these two Thingâ— First Some very Considerable Evil or mischief Warned against and Secondly An Equal danger of falling into iâ— without which all Warning would be not only superfluous but Ridiculous Now both these in the Present Case are very great as will appear by a distinâ—t consideration of each of them And First For the Evil which we are warned or caution'd against to wit the Turning of this light within us into Darkness 〈◊〉 Evil so unconceivable great and comprehensive that to give an Account of the Utmost extent of it would pose our Thoughts as well as Nonplus our Expressions But yet to help our Apprehensions of it the best we 〈◊〉 let â—s but consider with our selves those Intolerable Evils which Bodily Blindness Deafness Stupefaction and an utter Deprivatâ—on of all sense must unavoidably subject the outward Man to For what is one in such a Condition able to do And what is He not lyable to suffer and yet Doing and Suffering upon the matter Comprehend all that concerns a Man in this World If such an ones Enemy seeks his Life as He may be sure that some or other will and Possibly such an One as he takes for his Truest Friend in this forlorn Case he can neither see nor hear nor perceive his Approach till He finds Himself actually in his Murthering Hands He can neither encounter nor eâ—cape Him neither in his own â—â—fence give nor ward off a Blow 〈◊〉 whatsoever blinds a Man ipso facto disarms Him so that being thus 〈◊〉 rest both of his Sight and of all his Senseâ— besides what such an one can be fit for unless it be to set up for Prophecy or believe Tâ—â—â—substantiation I cannot Imagine Thâ—â— I say are some of those Fâ—â—tal mischiefs which corporal Blindneâ—â— and Insensibility expose the Body to and are not those of a Spiritual Blindneâ—â— Unexpressibly greater For must 〈◊〉 Man Labouring under this be utterly 〈◊〉 at a loss how to distinguish betweâ—â—â— the two grand Governing concerns 〈◊〉 â—â—fe Good and Evil and may not thâ—â— Ignorance of these cost us as dear as the Knowledge of them did our first Parentsâ— Life and Death Vice and Vertue comâ— alike to such an one As all things are oâ— the same Colour to Him who cannot seâ— His whole Soul is nothing but Night and Confusion Darkness and Indistinction He can neither see the way to Happinesâ— and how then should He choose it Noâ— yet to destruction and how then should He avoid it For where there is no sense of things there can be no distinction and â—here there is no distinction there can be no Choice A Man destitute of this directing and distinguishing Light within Him is and must be at the Mercy of every thing 〈◊〉 Nature that would impose or serve 〈◊〉 Turn upon Him So that whatsoever the Devil will have Him do that 〈◊〉 must do Whithersoever any Exâ—â—â—tant desire or design hurries Him thither He must go Whatsoever any base Interest shall prescribe that he must set his hand to whether His Heart goes along with it or no. If he be a Statesman He must be as willing to sell as the Enemy of his Country can be to bay If a Churchman he must be ready to surrender and give up the Church and make a Sacrifice of the Altar it self though He lives by it and in a Word take that for a full discharge from all his Subscriptions and obligations to it to do as He is bid Which being the Case of such as steer by a false Light certainly no slave in the Gallies is or can be in such a Wretched Condition of slavery as a Man thus abandoned by Conscience and bereft of all Inward Principles that should either Guide or Controul Him in the Course of his Conversation So that we see here the Transcendent Greatness of the Evil which 〈◊〉 stand caution'd against But then Secondly If it were an Evil that seldom happened that very hardly and raâ—â—ly befell a Man this might in a 〈◊〉 measure supersede the strictness of tâ—â—â— Caution But on the contrary we shaâ—â— find that as great as the Evil is which we are to fence against and that is 〈◊〉 great as the Capacities of an Immortal Soul the Greatness of the danger is still Commensurate For it is a Case that usually happens It is a mischief as frequent in the Event as it is or can be Fatal in the Effect It is as in a Common Plague in which the Infectionâ—â— as hard to be escaped as the distempâ—â— to be Cured For that which brings this Darkness upon the Soul is Sin And as the state of Nature now is the Soul is not so Close United to the Body as Sin is to the Soul indeed so close is the Union between them that one would even think the Soul it self as much a Spirit as it is were the matter and Sin the form in our present Constitution In a word there is a set Combination of all without a Man and all within Him of all above ground and all under it if Hell be so first to put out his Eyes and then to draw or drive Him headlong into Perdition From all which I suppose we must needs see Reason more than sufficient for this Admonition of our Saviour Take heed that the Light which is in Thee be not Darkness An Admonition founded upon no less a Concern than all that a Man can save and all that He can lose to Eternity And thus having shewn both the Vastness of the Evil it self and the extreme danger we are in of it Since no Man can be at all the Wiser or the Safer barely for knowing his danger without a Vigorous application to prevent it and since the surest and most Rational preventive of it is to know by what Arts and methods our Enemy will encounter us and by which He is most likely to prevail over us we will enquire into and Consider those Ways and Means by which He commonly attempts and too frequently effects this so dismal a Change upon us as to strip us even of the poor
and much less His Conscience together For neither Grace nor Nature will have it so It is an utter Contradiction to the methods of Both. Who hath Woe Who hath Sorrow Who hath Contentions Who hath Babling Who hath wounds without Cause Who hath Redness of Eyes says Solomon Prov. 23.29 Which Question He Himself presently Answers in the next verse They who tarry long at the wine they who seek after mixt wine So say I who has a stupid Intellect a Broken memory and a blasted wit and which is worse than all a Blind and a Benighted Conscience but the Intemperate and Luxurious the Epicure and the Smell-feast So Impossible is it for a Man to turn Sott without making Himself a Blockhead too I know this is not always the present effect of these Courses but at long run it will Infallibly be so and Time and Luxury together will as certainly change the Inside as it does the outside of the Best heads whatsoever and much more of such Heads as are strong for nothing but to bear drink concerning which it ever was and is and will be a sure observation that such as are Ablest at the Barrel are generally Weakest at the Book And thus much for the first great Darkner of Man's mind sensuality and that in Both the Branches of it Lust and Intemperance Secondly Another Vitious affection which Clouds and Darkens the Conscience is Covetousness Concerning which it may truly be affirmed that of all the Vices incident to Humane Nature none so powerfully and peculiarly Carries the Soul downwards as Covetousness does It makes it all Earth and Dirt Burying that Noble Thing which can never Die. So that while the Body is above ground the Soul is under it and therefore must needs be in a state of Darkness while it Converses in the Regions of it How mightily this Vice Darkens and Debases the Mind Scripture-Instancer do abundantly shew When Moses would assign the proper Qualifications of a Judge which office certainly calls for the Quickest Apprehension and the solidest Judgment that the Mind of Man is well Capable of Deut. 16.19 Thou shalt not says He take a Gift But why He presently adds the Reason Because a Gift says He blinds the Eyes of the wise And no wonder for it perverts their will and then who so Blind as the Man who resolves not to see Gold it seems being but a very bad help and Cure of the Eyes in such Cases In like manner when Samuel would set the Credit of his Integrity clear above all the Aspersions of Envy and Calumny it self 1 Sam. 12.3 Of whose hands says He have I received a Bribe to blind my Eyes therewith Implying thereby that for a Man to be Gripe-handed and Clear-sighted too was Impossible And again Eccl. 7.7 A gift says the Wiseman destroyeth the Heart That is as we have shewn already the Iudging and Discerning Powers of the Soul By all which we see that in the Judgment of some of the wisest and greatest Men that ever lived such as Moses Samuel Solomon Himself Covetousness Baffles and Befools the mind Blinds and Confounds the Reasoning Faculty and that not only in ordinary Persons but even in the Ablest the Wisest and most sagacious And to give you one Proof above all of the peculiar blinding Power of this Vice there is not the most Covetous wretch Breathing who does so much as see or perceive that He is Covetous For the Truth is preach to the Conscience of a Covetous Person if he may be said to have any with the Tongue of Men and Angels and tell him of the Vanity of the World of Treasure in Heaven and of the Necessity of being Rich toward God and Liberal to his Poor Brother and 't is all but flat insipid and ridiculous stuff to Him who neither sees nor feels nor suffers any thing to pass into His Heart but through his Hands You must preach to such an One of Bargain and sale Profits and Perquisits Principal and Interest use upon use and if you can perswade Him that Godliness is gain in his own sense perhaps you may do something with Him otherwise though you edge every word you speak with Reason and Religion Evidence and Demonstration you shall never affect nor touch nor so much as reach his Conscience for it is kept sealed up in a bag under Lock and Key and you cannot come at it And thus much for the second base Affection that blinds the mind of Man which is Covetousness A thing directly Contrary to the very Spirit of Christianity which is a free a large and an open Spirit A Spirit open to God and Man and always carrying Charity in one hand and Generosity in the other Thirdly The third and last Vile affection which I shall mention as having the same Darkening effect upon the Mind or Conscience is Ambition For as Covetousness dulls the mind by pressing it down too much below it self so Ambition dazles it by lifting it up as much above it self But both of them are sure to darken the light of it For if you either look too intently down a deep Precipice upon a Thing at an extreme distance below you or with the same earnestness fix your Eye upon something at too great an Height above you in both cases you will find a Vertigo or Giddiness And where there is a Giddiness in the Head there will be always a mist before the Eyes And thus no doubt it was only an Ambitious aspiring after high Things which not long since caused such a Woful scandalous Giddiness in some Men's Consciences and made them turn Round and Round from this to That and from That to this till at length they knew not what Bottom to fix upon And this in my Opinion is a Case that admits of no Vindication Pride we know which is always Cousin-German to Ambition is Commonly reckoned the Fore-runner of a Fall It was the Devil's sin and the Devil's ruine and has been ever since the Devil 's strategem who like an Expert Wrestler usually gives a Man a Lift before he gives Him a Throw But how does he do this Why by first blinding Him with Ambition and when a Man either cannot or will not mind the Ground he stands upon as a Thing forsooth too much below Him he is then easily justled down and thrust headlong into the next ditch The Truth is in this case Men seem to ascend to an High station just as they use to leap down a very great steep in both Cases they shut their Eyes first for in both the danger is very dreadful and the way to venture upon it is not to see it Yea so fatally does this touring aspiring humour intoxicate and impose upon Mens minds that when the Devil stands Bobbing and Tantalizing their Gaping hopes with some Preferment in Church or State they shall do the Basest the Vilest and most Odious things Imaginable and that not only in defiance of Conscience but which is yet more
Thing neither to be done within this Compass of time nor perhaps so proper for this Exercise and therefore let it suffice us upon the warrant of express Scripture not Sophisticated by Nice and forced Expositions but plainly interpreted by the General Tradition of the Church to which all private Reason ought in Reason to give place to confess and adore the Deity of the Holy Ghost Now this Holy Spirit is in the Church as the Soul in the Natural Body For as the same Soul does in and by the several parts of the Body exercise several functions and Operations so the Holy Ghost while He animates the mystical Body of Christ Causes in it several Gifts and Powers by which He Enables it to exert Variety of Actions And as in the River Nilus it is the same fountain which supplies the seven streams So when we read of the seven Spirits Revelation 4.5 They are but so many several Gifts of the same Spirit all bearing the Name and Title of their Donor as it is usual for so many several Volumes to bear the single denomination of their Author and we say properly enough that such an one has read Cicero or Plutarch when he has read their Works But now surely this Glorious Person or Being who thus enlightens the minds of all Men coming into the World in some measure and of the Church more Especially cannot be in the Rank and Number of Created Beings The Heathens attributed a kind of Divinity or Godhead to springs because of that Continual Inexhaustible Emanation from them Resembling a kind of Infinity But here we see the very Gifts of the Spirit to be Divine and where we find such a Divinity in the stream certainly we may well ascribe it in a more transcendent manner to the Fountain Besides if the Holy Ghost were not God I cannot see how our Bodies could be well called his Temples since none but God can Challenge to Himself the Prerogative of a Temple And so much for the first Consequent But Secondly This great diversity of the Spirits Gifts may read a Lecture of Humility to some and of Contentment to others God indeed in this great Scheme of the Creation has drawn some Capital Letters set forth some Master-Pieces and furnished them with Higher Abilities than ordinary and given them Gifts as it were with both hands But for all that none can brag of a Monopoly of them none has so absolutely engrossed them all as to be that Thing of which we may say Here we see what and how much God can do No God has wrote upon no Created Being the utmost stint of his Power but only the free Issues and Products of his Pleasure God has made no Man in Opprobrium Naturae only to overlook his Fellow Creatures to upbraid them with their Defects and to discourage them with the Amazing distance of the Comparison He has filled no Man's Intellectuals so full but He has left some Vacuities in them that may sometimes send Him for supplies to Minds of a much Lower Pitch He has Stocked no Land or Countrey with Such Universal Plenty without the mixture of some wants to be the ground and Cause of Commerce for mutual wants and mutual perfections together are the Bond and Cement of Conversation The vast Knowledge and Ruling Abilities of Moses might yet stand in need of Aaron's Elocution And He who speaks with the Tongue of Angels and the greatest Fluency of Spiritual Rhetorick may yet be at a loss when He comes to matters of Controversy and to assert the Truth against the Assaults and Sophistry of a subtle opponent God indeed can and sometimes happily does unite both these Gifts in the same Person But where He does not let not Him who can Preach condemn Him who can only Dispute neither let Him who can dispute despise Him who can only Preach For as we have shewn before the Church is served by both and has equally need of some Men to speak and declare the Word and of others to Defend it it being enough and too often more than enough for one Man to maintain what another says In which Work the speaking part is indeed the more Easy but the Defensive the more glorious And as this may give some Check to the Presumption of the most raised Understandings so it should prevent the despondency of the meanest For the Apostle makes this very use of it in the 21. and 22. v. Where He would not have even the lowest and poorest member of the Church to be dejected upon the Consideration of what it wants but rather be Comforted in the sense of what it has Let not the foot Trample upon it self because it does not rule the Body but consider that it has the honour to support it Nay the greatest Abilities are sometimes beholding to the very meanest if but for this only that without them they would want the Gloss and Lustre of a Foyl The Two Talents went into Heaven as easily as the Five And God has put a Peculiar usefulness even into the smallest Members of the Body answerable to some Need or Defect in the greatest thereby to level them to a mutual Intercourse of Compliance and Benefaction which alone can keep things equal and is indeed the very Poise and bâ—last of Society And thus much for the second Consequent But Thirdly The foregoing Doctrine affords us also a Touchstone for the Tryal of Spirits For such as are the Gifts such must be also the Spirit from which they flow And since both of them have been so much pretended to it is well for the Church that it has rule of judgment and a note of Discrimination There is none who is not willfully a stranger to the Affairs of our Israel but has had the Noise and blusters of Gifted Brethren and of persons pretending to the Spirit ringing in his Ears Concerning which Plea of theirs since we all know that there are Spirits both Good and Bad it cannot be denyed but that in some sence they might have the Spirit such a Spirit as it was and that in a very large measure But as for their Gifts we must Examine them by the standard of those here mentioned by the Apostle And first for that of Prophecy These Men were once full of a Prophecy that the World should be destroyed in the Year 1656 Because forsooth the Flood came upon the Old World in that Year Reckoning from the Creation And again that the Downfal of Pope and Antichrist together with that of Monarchy and Episcopacy which they always accounted as Limbs of Antichrist should be in the Year 1666. And that because some Remarkable mention is made of the Number 666 in the Revelation with many other such like Predictions The Event of all which has shewn that those Men were not of God's Privy Council but on the Contrary that all their Prophecies were like those of Almanacks which warn every Wise Body to prepare against foul weather by their foretelling
Fair. And then for the Gift of Healing let a bleeding Church and State shew how notably they were gifted that way They played the Chirurgeons indeed with a Witness but we never yet heard that they Acted the Physitian all their Practice upon the Body Politick was with Powder and Ball Sword and Pistol No saving of Life with those Men but by Purging away the Estate And likewise for the Gift of discerning of Spirits They had their Tryers that is a Court appointed for the Tryal of Ministers but most properly called Cromwell's Inquisition In which they would pretend to know Men's hearts and inward Bent of their Spirits as their word was by their very looks But the Truth is as the Chief Pretence of those Tryers was to enquire into Men's Gifts so if they found them but well Gifted in the Hand they never looked any further for a full and Free hand was with them an Abundant demonstration of a Gracious Heart a word in great request in those times And moreover for the Gift of diverse Tongues it is certain that they scarce spake the same Thing for two days together Though otherwise it must be Confessed that they were none of the greatest Linguists their own Mother Tongue serving all their Occasions without ever so much as looking into the Fathers who always spoke the Language of the Beast to such as could not understand them Latin was with them a Mortal Crime and Greek instead of being owned for the Language of the Holy Ghost as in the New Testament it is was looked upon like the Sin against it so that in a Word they had all the Confusions of Babel amongst them without the Diversity of Tongues And then Lastly For the Gift of Interpreting they thought themselves no ordinary Men at Expounding a Chapter if the Turning of a few Rational significant Words and Sentences into a loose tedious Impertinent Harangue could be called an Exposition But above all for their Interpreting Gift you must take them upon Ezekiel Daniel and the Revelation and from thence as it were out of a Dark Prophetick Cloud Thundring against the Old Cavaleirs and the Church of England and as I may but too appositely express it breaking them upon the wheels in Ezekiel Casting them to the Beasts in Daniel and pouring upon them all the Vials in the Revelation After which let any one deny it who durst that the Black Decree was Absolutely passed upon those Malignants and that they were all of them to a Man Sons of Reprobation And thus I think I have Reckoned up most of the Extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit and Compared them with those of our late Gifted Brethren Amongst all which Divine Gifts I must declare that I cannot find the Gift of Canting and whining and making Faces that is of Speaking Bad sence with worse looks which yet those Men used to call the Language of Canaan Nor can I find the Gift of uttering every suddain crude undigested thought coming over their minds and of being Impudently bold and Familiar with Almighty God in Prayer I cannot find the Gift of exploding the Mysteries and peculiar Credenda of the Gospel in order to the turning Christianity into bare Morality I cannot find the Gift of accounting Tenderness of Conscience against Law as a Thing Sacred but Tenderness of Conscience according to Law as a Crime to be prosecuted almost to Death In a word I cannot find the Gifts of Rebelling Plundering Sequestring Robbing Churches and Murdering Kings and all this purely for the sake of Conscience and Religion These Things I say whether it be through the Weakness of my discerning Faculties or whatsoever else may be the Cause I cannot for my Life find amongst the Primitive Gifts of the Spirit And therefore wheresoever I do find them let Men talk never so much of Inward Motions and Extraordinary Calls of the Spirit of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and of the Publick good of Moderation and of an Healing Spirit and the like yet long and sad Experience having taught us the true meaning of all these fine and fallacious Terms I must needs say both of them and the Spirit from which they proceed in those words of St. Iames 3.18 That they descend not from above but are Earthly Sensual and Devilish These are the Names which God knows and calls them by though Schismaticks and Hypocrites may call them Reformation But Fourthly In the fourth and last place This Emanation of Gifts from the Spirit assures us that Knowledge and Learning are by no means opposite to Grace since we see Gifts as well as Graces conferred by the same Spirit But amongst those of the late Reforming Age whom we have been speaking of all Learning was utterly cryed down So that with them the best Preachers were such as could not read and the ablest Divines such as could not write In all their Preachments they so highly pretended to the Spirit that they could hardly so much as spell the Letter To be blind was with them the Proper Qualification of a Spiritual Guide and to be Book-Learned as they called it and to be Irreligious were almost Terms Convertible None were thought fit for the Ministry but Tradesmen and Mechanicks because none else were allowed to have the Spirit Those only were accounted like St. Paul who could work with their hands and in a litteral sence drive the Nail home and be able to make a Pulpit before they preached in it But the Spirit in the Primitive Church took quite another Method being still as Careful to furnish the Head as to sanctifie the Heart and as He wrought Miracles to found and establish a Church by these extraordinary Gifts so it would have been a greater Miracle to have done it without them God as He is the giver of Grace so He is the Father of Lights He neither Admits Darkness in Himself nor approves it in others And therefore those who place all Religion in the Heats of a furious Zeal without the due Illuminations of Knowledge Know not of what Spirit they are indeed of such a Spirit as begins in Darkness Leads to it and Ends in it But certainly we shall one day find that a Religion so much Resembling Hell neither was nor could be the Readiest way to Heaven But on the Contrary That the Spirit always Guides and instructs before He saves and that as He brings to Happiness only by the ways of Holiness so He never leads to true Holiness but by the Paths of Knowledge To which Holy Spirit together with the Father and the Son Three Persons and one God be rendred and ascribed as is most due all Praise Might Majesty and Dominion both now and for evermore Amen THE Peculiar Care AND Concern of Providence FOR THE Protection and Defense of Kings Set forth in a SERMON Preached At Westminster-Abbey Nov. 5. 1675. Psalm CXLIV 10 former part It is He that giveth Salvation unto Kings THE greatest and most magnificent Title by which God