condition of comprehending what is the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge He doth not speak of a full or absolute comprehension of this love For this no Creature whatsoever how deeply and firmly soever rooted and grounded in love is capable of Yea the Apostle himself presently speaking of the love of Christ saith it passeth knowledge meaning that the compass or riches of this love are greater and more vast than to be fully estimated and computed by men yea or by any finite or created understanding whatsoever but he speaketh of such a comprehension or apprehension rather which the nature of man may by means and helps be advanced and carried up unto which is a comprehension comparatively I mean in respect of that narrow imperfect and obscure knowledge hereof which is generally found amongst the Saints themselves because the hearts of so few of them serve them to be at the costs and charges of that which is more raised and would do double the service of the other But first What doth he mean by being rooted and grounded in love Sect. 4 Secondly Why doth he require such a qualification as this a being rooted and grounded in love to put them into a capacity of comprehending the heights and depths and lengths and breadths thereof of the love of Christ I suppose these dimensions here spoken of do denote four special things considerable in the mystery of the love of Christ First The breadth of it I conceive imports the extent of the love of Christ as it is held forth and declared in the Gospel in reference to the Persons to whom it is vouchsafed and born As concerning this dimension the breadth or extent of it he had a little before viz. in the former part of this Chapter and all along the second taught them that it was Commensurable unto the World and that it did not contain it self within the bounds of the Jewish Nation but dilated and spread it self over the whole World and rejoyced over all the Nations of the Earth Secondly The length of it seems to note the duration of it which reacheth from Eternity to Eternity or in the Scripture expression from Everlasting to Everlasting It was conceived in his breast of old before the Foundations of the World were laid from thence it brake forth and discovered itself in time and now it runs along and hath continued in and with the World and will continue together with the glorious fruits and effects of it to Eternity Thirdly The depth of this love may point at either the great and most profound Condescention whereunto Christ was drawn by it for the benefit of men as when he stooped from the height of all glory in the highest Heavens to seek for a lost World in the heart or lower parts of the Earth having undergone by the way a most dolorous painful and ignominious death or else at the peculiar manner of the efficacy or working of this love in that it wrought downwards even to the depth and bottom as it were of that misery wherein the World lay plunged and out of which there had been no redemption for it had not the love of Christ we speak of by its most adorable virtue strength and vigour made its way to it and wrought the Cure Fourthly and lastly By the height of this love the Apostle questionless signifieth either the lifting up and magnifying of it self over and above the high misdemeanours and provocations of the World by which it was not turned out of its way nor so much as put to the least stand Or else the efficacious and successful tendency of it to raise the blessedness of those that should reap the fruits of it exceeding high Now to put you into a capacity to comprehend these dimensions of the love of Christ to comprehend them I say as they may be comprehended by you to your unspeakable comfort and joy you must be rooted and grounded in love But what is it to be rooted and grounded in love For this was the former question propounded I answer Some by the love here spoken of wherein the Apostle requests of God that they might be rooted and grounded understand the love of God that is that love which God beareth unto mankind and expresseth in the Gospel But though it be good to be rooted and grounded in this love yet is not this the meaning of the Holy Ghost here As for other reasons so more especially for this That this love is upon the matter and for substance the same thing which he would have them to be in a capacity of comprehending For the love of God and of Christ are in effect the same Now to be rooted and grounded in any love whatsoever cannot be said to be a means to make us able to comprehend in the sense lately declared the same love Because it must thus be comprehended before we can be rooted and grounded in it Therefore doubtless the love here spoken of is that affection of love which is or ought to be in men whether towards God or towards man or both though I judge it best to understand it of both But what is it to be rooted in this love Rooting in a tree implies a kind of conveying working or infinuating it self into the Earth by those parts of it which we call the root which are given unto it by God in Nature for that end and purpose By this means it comes to have a kind of firm footing and standing in the earth where also being once rooted it grows Now to be rooted in love seems to import some such thing as this Namely that a man hath by the use of his Reason Judgment Understanding and Conscience faculties and powers given unto him for this and such like purposes as it were conveyed himself into the midst of such Reasons Motives and Arguments whereof there are plenty in the Scriptures yea and many in the book of Nature and Conscience also which are effectual and proper to fill him heart and soul with these affections of love to God and men Many there are that may be said in a sense and that according to truth to love God and to love men that yet are not rooted and grounded in this affection Either they have conceived or taken hold of some light thoughts perswading them to the love of God and men or convincing them of their duty in this kind Or it may be there being in men a kind of natural love to God as in Children to their Parents they are under some impressions of this affection But then a person man or woman may properly be said to be rooted and grounded in love when they have considered over and over and throughly beaten their hearts and souls and consciences with such considerations and motives which are as natural and proper not only to provoke and ingage them to love both God and men but also to continue resolute and firm in
being saved it is so full that we are already saved by it And so Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance or rather the subsistence for so Hypostasis signifies of things hoped for Faith is said to be the subsistence or existence of things hoped for because the belief of those grounds or of those Promises of God or declarations that come from Heaven That These and these things shall be given to those that believe this I say doth give a kind of existency and presentiality unto the things themselves in the minds and spirits and souls of men For it is Faith that is the ground work or that which giveth a subsistence to these things in the soul for Hope floweth from Faith and by it the heart is carried out to the expectation of them Hope doth dilate and open the heart as a man doth his hand to receive that which is ready to be given unto him But that which giveth life breath and being unto Hope that is Faith It is Faith that giveth Being unto the Truth and Faithfulness of God in his Promises and Declarations by which they are settled and secured that they are all valid and that God will make them good unto his Sons and Daughters those who shall believe And in this respect the Language or manner of the Scripture speaking is very remarkable That they who are enabled by God by being anointed with a Spirit of Revelation to put men into a steady and substantial hope of possessing and enjoying such and such things are said to give them the things themselves So Isa 61.1 2 3. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted c. So again ver 3. To give them beauty for ashes the Oyl of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness c. So that according to this manner of Scripture speaking because the Prophet offered by a spirit of Prophecy to fill theis hearts with the hope and expectations of these things he is said to give them the things themselves So again he that shall be an instrument in the hand of God to preach the Word of God with such evidence of truth and demonstration as that he fills the hearts of men full of the hope of Salvation is said actually to save them Take heed unto thy self saith Paul to Timothy and unto the Doctrine continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee 1 Tim. 4.16 Fourthly Sect. 14 Your being filled with the Spirit will cause God to take a holy pleasure and delight in you and to imploy you about many actions and services of his which will be very honourable unto you and turn to a bleffed account in due time in his Kingdom Wherefore saith the Apostle to the Church at Jerusalem look ye out among you seven men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost c. Which doth imply that the men that God seeketh for the acting and doing his business here in the World are such who are full of the Holy Ghost such who have a rich anointing of the Spirit of God Men that are filled with the Spirit will be vigorous active and free in their work they will do what they do with all their might As men delight to be served by such Servants who are diligent and will go through stitch with their business that will not be baffled or turned out of their way by every toy or trivial occasion that shall present it self but will go on with their business not with trifling Even so it is a special Principle in the living God to desire servants that will be faithful and fervent in their business This indeed is the very Nature and Being of God and therefore he putteth that Character of his Being upon men which he judgeth meet to be chosen as instruments to serve him and which are as I may say made for him fitly qualified for any work or employment that shall be put into their hands Who counted me faithful saith Paul putting me into the Ministry If Paul had not been the man he was a man of mettle courage and resolution God would not have delighted in his service so as to have put him into the Ministry Now where we do not see men that are in the Ministry of the same Spirit it is a sign they are not put here by God for God taketh no delight or pleasure but only in such who are fitted for his work We read 2 Tim. 2.21 of Vessels prepared and made fit for the Masters use so that there is a certain fitness as well in Persons as in Vessels which maketh them meet for such or such respective uses Now that Generation of men in the World that are filled with the Spirit are only meet for the Masters use viz. the Great Master of the World the Lord of Hosts Such men as these men who are through-hearted zealous and lovers of his Work and that take delight in being employed in his Service are Vessels of pleasure and delight unto him Seest thou a man saith Solomon diligent in his business he shall stand before Kings Prov. 22.29 Shall stand before Kings namely to minister unto them Men of this Character are only meet for their Service Even so none are fit for the Service of the Great God of Heaven and Earth but such men who are of active and vigorous spirits and that know how to manage his Affairs with diligence and faithfulness for his interest in the World These men shall not stand idle but God will take delight to make use of them in his Service Whereas men that are unqualified for his Service to any confiderable degree as all men are who art not filled with the Spirit who have no activity nor edge in them are unto God as a bottle in the smoak And as men do not love to put what they drink into bottles that are smoaky because that will destroy all the goodness and pleasantness of the taste of that which shall be put into them Even so as was but now hinted men that are unqualified that have no dexterity for his business these are persons in whom God taketh no pleasure but are unto him as a bottle in the smoak because the management of his Affairs by such men as these will rather be a disparagement unto him than any matter of glory by rendring his Sacred Things common and consequently rendring them despicable in the eyes of men But on the contrary men that are richly anointed and filled with his Spirit these are Agents and Instruments for him as the Sword of Goliah was unto David there was none like unto it There is no Generation of men under Heaven that he taketh such pleasure in to commit and intrust his Affairs withal as with these who are filled with the Spirit Who maketh his Angels Spirits or wind
not believe except they saw Signs and Wonders so the Holy Ghost himself represents such persons as worse than Harlots who did believe without Signs and Wonders Mat. 21.32 John came unto you in the way of righteousness and ye believed him not but the Publicans and Harlots believed him So likewise elsewhere the Holy Ghost adjudgeth such to be persons more degenerate from the nature and property of men than ordinary to be signally wicked and perverse that would not hearken to the Doctrine of such Teachers who were excellently righteous and holy And to add this as a close of this particular it is probable that the Apostles themselves wrought not Miracles but at their first coming to a place and that they did not make use of them in those places after any long stay in them The reason may be because at their first coming to a place Miracles might be an effectual means to awaken men whereas if they staid but any considerable time then they had the means and opportunities to observe their lives and conversations NOw this would do the same service in regard of the truth and for the confirmation of what they preached that Miracles could do The Apostle Paul when he came to Rome where he continued three years in preaching the things of God there is no mention of any Miracles that he wrought there because he had opportunity to give an account and sufficient confirmation of the truth of his Doctrine by the holiness and heavenliness of his life and conversation So that it is but a vain and empty pretense to talk of signs and Miracles now for the confirmation of the Doctrine of the Gospel for indeed in speaking such things and making such demands they demonstrate themselves to be as was even now said of the race of those that are called an Adulterous Generation by the Lord Christ who was not wont to slander men Another Pretense or Plea insisted upon by the persons under censure Sect. 17 for justification of themselves in their unchristian deportment in saying to the Ministry of the Gospel depart from us we desire thee not is this it is unto them but as salt that is infatuated and hath lost its savour we find no benefit by it we are not edified nor built up in our most holy Faith we have been oft rained upon by it and yet we do not flourish under it I reply first Though haply it be not meet to charge all those who are in the condemantion we speak of with alledging that which they do not only know is not truth but what they know to be contrary unto the truth as a ground of their practice Yet is it much to be feared that some of them pick the quarrel against the Ministry of the Gospel on a quite contrary ground because it hath too much savour and bites and gnaws and beareth hard upon their Consciences This I say is much to be feared is the true cause why many of them withdraw from it and are not able to bear the dread and terrour of it We saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 2.16 are unto those that perish the savour of death unto death The Gospel is so severe against those whose heart will not yield unto it that it kindles the savour and smell as it were of the fire and brimstone of hell in thier Consciences it makes them to know that they are a most cursed Generation of men and women the words thereof to wicked men are like the words of Michaiah unto Ahab 1 Kings 22.8 who hated him because he never prophesyed good unto him It suffers them to have no peace nor pleasure in their great Estates here in this present World So that it is much to be feared that many upon this account have turned their backs upon it that so they may be free from those gnawings and those kind of fiery doings which are ever and anon kindled in their inward parts by the means of it Secondly That the Ministry of the Gospel is not so effectual so mighty in operation upon those who take up this disparaging complaint against it doth not at all prove that either it is not effectual in it self or that it is not so unto others no nor yet that it is ineffectual unto them upon any such terms but that if they would remove that out of the way which maketh it ineffectual and which hindereth the efficacy of it which they might remove by the grace of God vouchsafed unto them it might become as effectual unto them as it is in it self and in its own nature and as it is unto many men in the World First That the Gospel is effectual in it self I think we need not question and more especially when opened like unto it self it is called The power of God or the Arm of God unto salvation Rom. 1.16 Heb. 4.12 The Word is said to be quick and powerful in operation it is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the hearts of men This my Brethren is the property of the Gospel and of the Ministry thereof when it is handled like it self and when it deserves the name of the Ministry of the Gospel But I confess the Word of God may be so handled that the edge and spiritfulness of it may be blunted and flatted as when they that preach it and undertake to open it know not how to bring forth the mind of God in it but substitute their own thoughts and apprehensions instead thereof The truth is that in such cases as these the Word of God is but like the word of men It is the Spirit of the Word that is so piercing and searching and which is the discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the hearts of men it is not the Letter of it though we should preach the jots and tittles of the Word but then put a false sense and interpretation on it that will not do that great and lively execution which is proper to it it will not rouse the Conscience nor awake the spirits of men but it is the mind of God the true sense and meaning of the Word conveyed and brought home to the Conciences and Understandings of men this is all spirit and all life The words which I speak saith Christ they are spirit and life meaning in their true sense and meaning So that it is a clear case that the Ministry of the Gospel is in it self a thing exceeding lively and penetrative and effectual it will take mens hearts out of their bodies and give them into their hands to see all that is within them many times it poureth out it self like a great flash of lightning and makes men to see hideous shapes of thoughts conceits opinions and apprehensions on the one hand and allureth on the other hand to waies of holiness and virtue by strong and potent Arguments or Motives Secondly Sect. 18 That it is also effectual unto others appears by the great and many wonders it hath wrought in
any such terms which had set limits and bounds unto it and told them that it was good to such and such a degree but not further this had been apt to have diminished the esteem and reputation of it and consequently to have interrupted and checked the desires of it in the hearts of men Even so we may say concerning this great Priviledge of being filled with the Spirit if we could measure out unto you and were able to say that it is thus much and no more this were neither for your benefit or profit neither should we be found faithful or true Witnesses of those excellent and glorious things of God There is no question but that the Apostles in their daies did make large discoveries of the peace of God and spake many glorious things of it so much that might have enflamed the hearts of men to have desired it but yet there was more than all this in that Character whereby it is described viz. A peace that passeth all understanding So questionless many great and excellent things and that according to sobriety and truth may be spoken concerning this great and happy Priviledge yet if we should attempt any thing in this kind without giving knowledge that we do not speak limitedly or to confine your apprehensions as if there were nothing further or greater in it besides and above or beyond what we can express without some such intimation or â—aution as this is we should rather prejudice you and set you off than quicken you and set you up to look after it We have formerly as I remember acquainted you with several Royalties and blessed Contentments which do attend the state of a person that is filled with the Spirit 〈◊〉 God One thing was that they that are filled with the Spirit of God are like to be much imployed and set on work by God he deâ—ghteth not to imploy such persons about any great services which he hath 〈◊〉 do in the World that are streightened in their spirits whose anointing 〈◊〉 but scanty narrow and low God doth not care that much of his Work should pass thorough their hands because they will not quit themselves so as to answer the Majesty of God nor the excellency of such Services Whereas those that are filled with the Spirit look whatsoever they go about or put forth their hearts unto they will carry it on with the greatest authority and highest hand neither will they baulk this or that Truth of God nor in the least give in for any opposition or contradiction of Men. Now this is a great Priviledge if we had hearts to conceive aright of it for a man or woman to be much imployed or much set on work by God the Angels are as it were proud of his service Christ speaking of his little ones saith Their Angels do alwaies behold the face of my Father which is in heaven Mat. 18.10 They stand waiting to see if there be any service or imployment they strive who shall be most set on work and who shall have most put into their hands for this is their honour and their glory And doubtless my Brethren if we had but the true sense and resentment of the transcendent worth and desirableness of serving God and of being imployed by him in the world we should account of it and esteem it after another manner of rate than I fear generally we do Another thing was this they that are partakers of that blessedness are upon the matter out of the reach of all sorrows or troubles about any thing that can befall them in this present World those things which cut other men to the very heart and soul these men are secured from when the World riseth up and lieth down by them they know not they are in an heavenly extasie or a spiritual kind of drunkenness As Lot being drunk knew not when his Daughters rose up from him nor lay down by him men that are full of the Spirit are lifted up they are in the upper Region where no storms no tempests nor troublesome things come there is a perpetual serenity clearness and peaceableness of mind whilest the World generally and those that are strangers to this fulness of the Spirit are tossed to and fro tumbling up and down their thoughts disquieting and tormenting them continually And so again we shewed that they that are filled with the Spirit are to a degree freed from Temptations It is said of God He cannot be tempted with evil Jam. 1.13 Now such men are partakers of that blessedness of God himself as far as flesh and bloud is capable of drawing near unto him Resist the Devil and he will flee from you saith the Apostle James c. 4.7 Brethren Why should the Devil flee from him that resisteth him and giveth him a peremptory denial It is because that he hath much to do and but little time to do it in and he will not lose his time when he hath no hope to speed he is then as if he stood upon thorns as we use to say if he get no profit or advantage by his Suggestions it is so much out of the way of his miserable comfort and that solace which he is capable of during his present state and condition all his solace being this to draw men into communion and fellowship with himself in his misery and knowing by his own experience that the way thereunto lieth by the way of sin and doing wickedly therefore he laboureth to entice men to walk in such waies knowing if he can but draw men into these paths he will presently meet with them and that they will arrive at that place of endless misery and torment which he is gone unto But now this great and blessed Priviledge of being filled with the Spirit of God will make all the enticements and allurements all the baits and temptations to evil of no force they will be as Arrows shot against a brazen Wall that will recoyl and turn upon him that shooteth them So that we need not ask a question What the fulness of the Spirit meaneth You see it is worthy all your labours all your endeavours and layings out of your selves in one kind or other though you should prejudice your flesh never so much upon the account of it yet nevertheless there is no cause for you to complain for the Priviledge is so great that it will do a thousand times more than bear its own charge and it will recompense a thousand fold into your bosome whatsoever you expend of your pleasures and enjoyments in the World for the attaining of it Sixthly Sect. 6 To promote the interest of the Exhortation propounded in your hearts and souls and to make you desirous indeed to be filled with the Spirit of God you may please yet further to consider that your Minds Reasons and Understandings with whatsoever besides shall be necessary for you to imploy or lay out about this great and blessed undertaking cannot be disposed of or imployed by
to be Errors Heresies Blasphemies c. and by riding over the heads of all those whom he calls Sectaries he shall set God upon the Throne and put an Iron Scepter into the hand of Jesus Christ wherewith to break all his Enemies in pieces like a Potters Vessel making full account that God will never have a Temple upon Earth unless it be of his building The Seeker whilest he throws the House of God out of the Windows as we use to say and makes an utter desolation in the Courts thereof casting out all the Ordinances and Ministrations of it as Menstruous and polluted Rags and makes an headless heartless and confused meeting of a few to speak what any Spirit one or other shall prompt them withall he conceipts and this with confidence enough too that he acts according to the heart of Jesus Christ and that persons of all other forms and waies do rather great disservice to Jesus Christ and the truth than otherwise and that he and men of his inspiration are the only persons that understand aright what makes for the lifting up of the Throne of Christ amongst men Yea the Rantor himself whose Principles and waies have no more Communion with the glory of God or of Jesus Christ than Light hath with Darkness or Christ himself with Belial yet he in his own conceipt is the first-born amongst the Friends of God and of Jesus Christ He alone it is that spreads abroad the sweet savour of Jesus Christ in the World whilest he pours out himself in all manner of abominations and sentenceth men of other Principles and Practices as strangers unto God and to the Gospel and obscurers and darkeners of the Grace of God and the fulness of Redemption purchased by Jesus Christ Yea there is another sort who is the last-born Son of Sathan that I know amongst us he finds false fire in the Zeal of all the former and therefore hath set up a new form or way for the worshipping and serving of God and though Sathan be more palpably visible in it than in any of the former yet he is confident that all other waies ought to cast down their Crowns to the ground at the feet of it yea and that they shall be made to do it Thus God hath many in the World that pretend high in Friendship to him and in Zeal for his glory who yet indeed trouble and disturbe the World And many of them labour in the very sire and some of them do as little spare their flesh as the Servants of Baal did who cut themselves with Knives and Lances which they needed not to do in case they were real Friends indeed unto God and worthy Imitators of the true Zeal and Christian fervour of Spirit which uttered themselves in the Primitive Christians So that as Solomon observing the common pretenses and professions of men one to another expresseth himself thus Prov 20.6 Mâ—st men will boast every man of his own goodness But who can find a faithful man That is a Friend indeed and indeed So may God altogether as truly say that there are many in the World men of this way and men of that way men of a third of a fourth and of a fifth who all boast of their goodness who pretend love to me and zeal for my glory but I can hardly find a faithful man amongst them a man who naturally careth for the things of my glory As the Apostle speaks concerning Timothy that did naturally mind his Affairs it is one of the hardest things in the World to find men especially any publick Society of men that do naturally mind the things of Jesus Christ But the thing I was saying unto you is that the reason why the interest of Prayer in the World I mean amongst Professors of Christianity is fallen so low as it is and is in a manner sunk in comparison of that which it was and appeared to be in the Christians of old is because that the Spirit of love to God that Heroick and vigorous Spirit is sunk in the Christian World It was upon the Wing in the times of the Apostles and some Ages after them but now among all pretenders to God certain it is that God amongst them all finds not many faithful Friends not many of that integrity and uprightness of heart and soul which was found in the Primitive Christians For as God reasoned the case with the Jews long since Isa 59.1 2. Behold the Lords hand is not shortened c. neither his ear heavy that he cannot hear So then this is a thing which needs be no mans doubt or question that to be great in the sight of God and to have his ear continually open unto a mans Prayer must needs be a treasure of comfort and peace unto him and so in consort with those three other Priviledges formerly opened renders a mans life and condition in the World as desirable as God judgeth meet to permit it to be here We further added Sect. 7 in the proposal of the Motive yet in hand that as a being filled with the Spirit would render a mans life in this World comfortable in respect of the four particulars mentioned yea most desirable So there is no other course that a man can take without this nothing that he can do besides or with a neglect of this will do it will interest a person man or woman in any or however not in all the particulars mentioned without a joynt concurrence of which there will be somewhat material and of moment wanting to the compleating of their condition in the World Let us speak a few words to this also and prove unto you that without a being filled with the Spirit none of the four particulars can be enjoyed or possessed by you at least upon any such terms on which they may be and are enjoyed by those that are filled with the Spirit and on which the desirableness of a mans life in the World is raised and maintained by them Now the reason briefly why none of the great Priviledges mentioned can be enjoyed like themselves by any other course taken or means used without a being filled with the Spirit is this because they all depend upon these cordial and high engagements for God and for the advancement of his interest in the World of which we have lately spoken and these are not likely to be found in any person or persons but in those only who are filled with the Spirit So that we have these two things to open and shew unto you First That the four particulars wherein as we have proved the life of a man in this World as to the greatest desirableness of it consists are not to be had or to be enjoyed either devisim but especially not conjunctim but only by a signal course of righteousness or a very considerable degree of activeness for God Secondly That no mans heart will ever be lifted up to such a course of righteousness as this to such
of himself unto him for by this means the Spirit withdraweth his former influences from such a person and affordeth him but a faint and scanty presence of himself afterwards Again Sect. 9 from the Apostles Exhortation 1 Thes 5.19 Quench not the Spirit the truth of the Doctrine may be further argued even to a demonstration For if it be a duty lying upon Christians not to quench the Spirit i. e. Not to do any thing that may justly occasion him to cease from his wonted activity within them stirring their hearts and causing them to burn with inflamed desires after God and Jesus Christ and the things of their eternal peace I say If it be a duty to take heed of quenching the Spirit in such a way as this Then must it needs be a duty lying upon them to be filled with the Spirit the fulness of whose presence as was formerly more than hinted will cause their hearts to burn within them and as it were to mount up unto heaven in a flame It is an approved Rule frequently made use of by learned Ministers for the right understanding of the Decalogue or Moral Law That every Negative Commandment includeth the Affirmative contrary unto it As that which forbiddeth the destroying or the taking away the life of a man enjoyneth withal the preservation of his life with all tenderness and care There is another Rule delivered by some worthy Expositors of the Scriptures very necessary to acquaint us with the emphatical import of some expressions here The Rule is to this effect Adverbs of denying do very frequently import the contrary unto that word unto which they are joyned Many instances of this Rule might readily be given but this may be done upon some other occasion only for the present take notice that this Scripture agreeth to that which is imported in both these Rules This Negative dehortation Quench not the Spirit carrieth in it some such Affirmative and commanding Precept as this See that you be prudently industrious and careful with all diligence to nourish and advance the life and vigour of the Spirit of God within you entertain him with all worthy and honourable respects in your souls let him have all the obedience that he desireth or requireth of you By this means you shall be so far from quenching him in his motions and operations that he will burn like a bright flame of heavenly fire within you and work wonderfully in your souls That some such sense as this was intended by the Apostle in the said Dehortation is not obscurely intimated by that negative Precept not to despise Prophecying immediately subjoyned unto that of not quenching the Spirit especially if it be interpreted by one or both the Rules given for the interpretation of the former passage For then Not to despise Prophecying will signifie to put an high esteem upon Prophecying that is in the Ministry or Preaching of the Gospel which is done partly by a constant or frequent attendance upon it as with reverence and fear so with a lively and steady expectation of meeting with God and much good in it partly also by a consciencious subjecting all a mans waies words and works unto the authority and guidance of it Now not to despise that is to honour Prophecying upon such terms as these and duly honoured it cannot be upon any other is a direct and pregnant course to cause the Spirit to take pleasure in us and to be as fire in our breasts and bones not suffering us to be in the dark concerning any such spiritual things which are necessary or meet for us to know nor yet to be remiss negligent or cold as to waies and works that are truly honourable and worthy our high calling And what doth all this signifie being interpreted but to be filled with the Spirit Nor is there any way more dangerous unto men or more threatening the great evil and misery of being emptied of the Spirit than to despise Prophecying or the Ministry of the Gospel which is called The ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 And the Ministers of it The Ministers not of the Letter that is Not so much of the words matter or contents of the Gospel but of the Spirit Because the Spirit of God according to the counsel and good pleasure of God in this behalf is wont to joyn himself with the glorious truths of the Gospel published and proclaimed by his Messengers when he hath an intent or desire to go forth into the world and to visit the hearts and consciences of the Sons and Daughters of men See upon this account Acts 10.44 Gal. 3.2 5. And as the Spirit ordinarily cometh unto the souls of men in a golden shower of Evangelical truths rained down upon them from the mouth of a Church Angel So doth he not only continue but increase and inlarge his presence in them proportionably to that honour and obedience which is given by them unto those truths by which he was brought into their souls Therefore as the despising of Prophecying whether it be by undervaluing or neglecting the Ordinance or dispensation of it or whether it be by disobeying and casting behind their backs the holy Counsels and divine Injunctions of it is a ready way to quench the Spirit So on the contrary to have this heavenly Ordinance in high esteem and with constancy in attending upon it to joyn a reverential and awful subjection unto the voice of it in our lives and conversations is a method or means sealed by God whereby to obtain that inestimable treasure of being filled with the Spirit Thus you see how the Apostles charge of not quenching the Spirit leadeth us directly and by a clear light to the acknowledgment of this That it is every mans duty to be filled with the Spirit That other Dehortation of the same Apostle Sect. 10 Parallel in Expression and partly in sense unto the former Grieve not the holy Spirit of God Ephes 4.30 being rightly argued and searched into will give us the light of the same truth at the bottom of it But let us first consider what it is to grieve the Spirit and then we shall see by the light of the two rules mentioned in the opening of the former proof how it doth follow from hence That it is the duty of Christians to be filled with the Spirit The Spirit here spoken of is neither the Spirit of Man nor Angel as we shall have occasion to shew hereafter but the eternal Spirit of God the third Person in the Trinity Now to speak properly this Spirit is not subject unto grief nor any other Passion whatsoever But men are said to grieve the Spirit when they cause him to do and act towards them that which men are used to do under the Passion of grief Now you know that men whilst they are under the guidance of that Passion are listless and indisposed unto action Grief contracts and straightens it is of a wasting and consuming nature unto the
moved to do any thing for the good of this Creature of his may be absolute and in all respects every way free For the object or opportunity for grace to shew it self or for to act is not in strictness of consideration misery or extremity these are the appropriate objects and opportunities of mercy But the proper opportunity for grace to shew it self is either 1. A flat or dead irrelativeness in point of merit in him to whom grace is shewn or to be shewn in reference unto him that is supposed to shew grace so that the person is no waies beholding no waies debtor unto him to whom he is willing to shew himself gracious Or else 2. A relation of demerit injury or provocation in him to whom grace is shewed towards him that sheweth grace or dealeth graciously by him So that he that sheweth grace hath not only no tye or ingagement at all upon him to shew any such thing but on the other hand hath much before him to disswade and take him off from it Now if he shall be pleased to overlook all these injuries and shall these notwithstanding deal graciously and shew kindness this is properly an act of grace 3. Neither was it simply or only the misery wherein men lay plunged that wrought upon the mercy of God so far as to move and prevail with him to open that door of relief and deliverance unto him which now he hath done but it was his misery so and so circumstantiated in one respect or other as is evident from hence because otherwise the misery whereinto those more excellent Creatures of his the lapsed Angels are fallen being every whit as great if not far greater than that of man would have had the same motive or operation upon the mercy of God to do the like for them which the misery of man had and so have prevailed with him to have provided deliverance for them also But this only by the way 4. And lastly for this That which was properly matter of grace in God towards man being fallen was not procured or drawn from him by any thing in man any waies obliging him thereunto or by any consideration whatsoever relating unto man or his condition But was every way free meerly intirely and absolutely from himself And this is one thing and the first thing wherein the graciousness and freeness of acting in the Spirit of God consists viz. That without any moving or obliging cause whatsoever from without or on mans part He is pleased to intreat him sweetly and lovingly and to come unto him as it were from heaven to visit him to converse with the Children of men in the secret of their hearts and souls to instruct and teach them the things of their eternal peace to admonish and excite them to the imbracing and prosecuting of them yea and to follow them with his Promise to look after them and assist them And these things he doth to all men without exception to a certain degree when they first come by the use of their judgments and understanding and by the putting forth of their consciences to be capable of them yea and doth increase and advance these his gracious workings in them untill either by a long continued neglect of his presence with them or by some higher hand of sin and wickedness practiced in opposition to such gracious motions and transactions of his within them they weary him and quench those gracious operations which his presence affordeth unto them and bring it so to pass that he taketh no pleasure or delight in them Secondly Sect. 9 Another thing and that which already in part hath been mentioned wherein the graciousness and freedom of the Spirit of God in his working consists is this viz. That he is pleased sweetly and graciously to intreat men not only without any cause on their part moving or obliging him thereunto But against many provocations that might in reason have perswaded him to the contrary I mean to have absented himself from them and to have abandoned and abhorred them for ever and left them to have perished in their sin eternally Who can number all that variety of sins and provocations which centred and met together in and about that first and great transgression of Adam What strain of sin and wickedness was there wanting There was unthankfulness pride unbelief contempt of God sensuality murther of Posterity and that without end and what not almost of all that the soul of God abhorreth And all this great concourse and assembly of all sorts of Impieties and Provocations from the greatest to the least of them were as so many Orators and Pleaders against man before God and disswaders of him from ever respecting or taking the least care or thought what became of him and yet the grace of God and of the good Spirit as we have both heard and known to our comfort hath through that abundant freeness thereof magnified it self against them all It had been grace yea freeness of grace in the strictest consideration of both words if God or the Spirit of God should have moved in mercy or love towards his creature Man upon a level or plain ground I mean without any worthiness or desert or any inviting consideration in man But that the Spirit of God should be in his visiting of men like a river of water running up a steep hill my meaning is should vouchsafe to make applications of himself unto them in order to their eternal peace against such height and fierceness of demerit injury and provocation is indeed somewhat more than simply and meerly free grace if we had a word of more excellent signification to express it by and the truth is we want words to express it For that grace which God hath vouchsafed unto men in their salvation and in the means thereof and in the great condescension of the Spirit of God unto men is more and somewhat of a higher nature it carries a richer and more glorious notion in it than simply of grace of meer grace or of free grace because this free grace might have been shewed unto men in case they had never sinned It was the grace of God to create man upon those terms that he did to put him in a capacity of continuing in that honour and happiness wherein he was created and to adorn him with such rich and excellent qualifications because the Creature could deserve none of these things it could deserve nothing before it was But having sinned for God to exhibit such terms of love and goodness and bounty as he hath done this is somewhat more if we know what to call it than meer grace or free grace The Apostle Paul makes it more than so and an higher expression of it than his I think could not have been given down from Heaven at least 2 Amat compositiones Paulus cum Prepositione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that should in any degree have been intelligible by men a For he takes
great Office and Dignities of the Priesthood as became the Honour and Holiness and Majesty of it then the Priesthood should never have been translated from him And so Acts 27.24 Paul saith that an Angel of God appeared unto him bidding him to be of a good courage God had given him the lives of all that were in the Ship with him Now though this was absolutely delivered unto Paul by the Angel yet in the 31 verse it appears that it was a conditional promise for saith Paul to those in the Ship concerning the Mariners except these abide in the ship ye cannot be saved And so Ezek. 33.13 When I shall say unto the righteous man he shall surely live that is when I shall declare it as my positive and real purpose and intention yet if he shall trust to his own righteousness and commit iniquity notwithstanding this promise of mine in his iniquity he shall dye And indeed more generally all the threatnings of destruction denounced by God against wicked and ungodly persons you shall find them more generally I say if not constantly delivered in positive and absolute forms of speech 1 Cor. 6.9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers c. shall inherite the Kingdom of God Here you see that this threatning against wicked men is deliver'd absolutly And yet we all know that there is a Condition of repentance included which intervening keepeth off the threatning from being executed upon the offender If a man be a covetous person or an unclean person the threatning goeth forth against him absolutely and yet through the grace of the Gospel if this person shall repent and turn him from the evil of his ways he shall not be excluded from the Kingdom of God Jonah 3.4 Yet forty daies and Nineveh shall be destroyed yet we know that forty and twice forty daies passed over their heads and yet the City not destroyed The reason was because the threatning was but Conditional though not a letter or tittle of it did appear unto Jonah untill the event declared it So that when by authority of our Saviour his declaration of that great Law of heaven mentioned touching the Holy Ghosts proceedings and treatings with men in and about the great matters of their Salvation we teach and affirm that the Holy Ghost still advanceth or retreateth in the souls of men as his entertainment is either kind or unkind We do not intend to affirm either that there never was or that there never will be any case wherein he will not take liberty to act above the line of that grace which is stretched over the world in that Law But only thus as hath been already touched that the Law mentioned so understood as has been opened is the common Law it is all the Law God would have the world to take notice of in particular and according unto which he would have men expect measure from him and from his Spirit If sometimes he acts by another Law this is but Lex horae as the Jewish Doctors are wont to call a Precept or Law given man in an extraordinary Case the Law of an hour whereas the other is Lex seculi the Law of an Age and this doth not reflect any error falshood or disparagement upon the general Law Secondly Sect. 13 We have oft signified upon occasion that God in Scripture treatie frequently applies himself unto men in such usages and forms of transactions as are ordinarily found amongst men themselves and used by them in their occasions yea and walking with them by the same principles and notions of reason and equity which are in request amongst them and generally owned by them and practised by those of them that deal any thing regularly Thus because amongst men a Covenant or Deed in writing is made good in Law by a Seal regularly affixed to it therefore God will seal his Covenant likewise And so because amongst men an Oath for confirmation is an end of all strife therefore God also because he would put an end to all doubtings jealousies and troublesome debates in the minds of men concerning his truth and faithfulness in his Word and great Promises of the Gospel he swears too So likewise in Laws enacted by men this being a common and standing principle Lex non curat particularia the Law doth not regard and take notice of particular or extraordinary Cases Laws are made and ought to be made only for ordinary Cases for Cases of ordinary and frequent occurrence or concernment amongst men There may be a Constellation or meeting together of such Circumstances once or at some one time which are not like to be found in the same Position again for many Ages after And so may constitute a case extraordinary like unto which another may not fall out in many Generations Therefore men do not nor indeed well can make Laws for the regulating of such Cases but leave all such to be regulated by the known and general principles of common Equity together with the Soveraign Law the good and benefit and welfare of the Publick for which the ordinary and standing Law was made So that in case the benefit of a variation or digression from the standing Law be manifestly expedient for the good and safety of the Publick the standing Law is not thereby violated or broken And doubtless it was the very intention of the Law-makers themselves that their Law calculated for the regulating ordinary cases only in such cases as these I mean extraordinaries should be waved So that now upon the account of the benefit and safety of the Publick men may walk contrary to the Letter of the Law and yet be blameless and no transgressours of the Law In like manner when God maketh general Laws and Rules and declares them unto the world that these are they by which he will move and act and treat with the children of men his intent is notwithstanding to leave these Laws to be regulated by himself according to the exigency and requirement of the general good and publick benefit of mankind which by his wisdom he is able to estimate and judge of knowing how to regulate all his proceedings with men as well in extraordinary as ordinary cases for their profit in conjunction with his own glory Thirdly Sect. 14 As there is nothing ought to cause a suspension of or variation from any general Law justly and equitably made and established amongst men but only that soveraign or supreme Law of Laws the good and benefit of the Society of men for which the Law it self was established So neither doth God or the Spirit of God at any time or in any case take liberty to digress or vary from his common and standing Law but only when some grand necessity either of the glory of God or the benefit and accommodation of men intervene And as in case those who are Law-givers amongst men could have
varying from that which he took in after Ages for the propagating of the members of it Yea or of such of the members of it who in Faith and holiness resembled Abraham their head So likewise when God began to take unto himself a Church of the Gentiles he proceeded we know in sundry particulars in somewhat an extraordinary manner which we shall not at present stand to mention We may yet take another instance When God set on foot that great Ordinance of Circumcision the Command was that Abraham being now ninety nine years old should be circumcized whereas the common and standing Law for the administration of this Ordinance afterwards was that the Male-child was to be circumcized at eight days old So likewise in case of Baptism in the beginning of this ministration there was one called to this imployment in an extraordinary manner and who himself had not been baptized but none of the after Dispensations of this Ordinance was to be performed or practised upon such terms either in the one respect or the other So then Paul being the first Founder under Christ and great Father of the Gentile Churches 1 Cor. 4.15 as Abraham was though in somewhat another sense of the Church of the Jews and being intended by God as we lately heard for a Pattern of believing unto the unbelieving Jews it is agreeable to the general Rule concerning beginnings and beginners of Administrations formerly mentioned that there should be somewhat more than ordinary in his conversion Fifthly But then in the next place though God Sect. 16 for the most part in laying the foundation of a new Administration doth not proceed or go by such a Law by which he doth intend to carry on the course of this Administration in the future practices of it yet he doth not wholly vary from nor altogether decline those general Rules by which he intends to carry on the same dispensation afterwards Though it be true that Paul said of himself that he was the chiefest of sinners yet notwithstanding this saith he I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief Therefore there was something in Paul though far from any thing that did ballance in value or consideration the extraordinary mercy vouchsafed unto him yet something I say there was there was a certain negative frame of heart as we may call it in him and that during all the time of his wickedness which God did take notice of as comparatively good and had it not been found in him the grace which he so much magnifies had not been vouchsafed to him For if therefore he was received to mercy because though he did thus and thus wickedly and unworthily yet he did it ignorantly and in unbelief that is not knowing not believing the Gospel to be from God nor those to be his servants whom he persecuted he did it upon lightning and easing Circumstances which took off much of the guilt and provocations of it in the eyes of God If this was the reason why he received mercy or at least that without which he had not received mercy it followeth clearly that had he done these things with knowledge and against the light of his judgment and conscience or believing the things of the Gospel to have been true certainly he had never seen that great salvation of God but had been excluded from it with the rest of the wicked of the world So he had another strain which God was much delighted in which was to be zealous for him and in his cause according to the real perswasion of his soul and conscience and therefore saith he God who counted me faithful putting me into the Ministry 1 Tim. 1.12 And thus we see that even in Pauls Conversion it self which was objected to infringe the credit and disparage the truth of that which from the Scriptures we shewed to be the general standing Law or Rule by which the Holy Ghost walks towards men in all things wherein he hath to do with them as in his fluxes and refluxes in his advances and in his retreats c. We may see I say in the case of Pauls Conversion as it hath been briefly and in some particulars only presented that when he doth upon some extraordinary occasions recede from the said Rule yet he keeps as close and near to it as conveniently he may he walks as it were within sight of it For though Paul had been a grievous sinner and blasphemer as we heard yet he had not debauched his conscience nor offered any indignity or affront to this great Vicegerent of God within him For as himself afterwards when he was not like to speak an untruth being now filled with the Spirit of Christ professed He verily thought with himself that he ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth Acts 26.9 And that as touching the righteousness of the Law he was blameless Phil. 3.6 That he was zealous towards God Acts 22 3. And for his great sins of persecuting and blaspheming these were committed by him not only ignorantly that is without his knowing them to be sins but out of ignorance that is upon such terms of an ingenuity of conscience that had he but known them to be sins he would not have committed them For he that is zealous towards God as Paul was as we lately heard cannot but upon knowledge and conviction that any of his waies are hateful unto God presently hate and abandon them Now such things as these being in Paul before his Conversion though I am not willing to say because I am not confident in believing it that they did reduce him into the number of those who in our Saviours Rule all this while discoursed are said to have in the sense formerly declared to whom it is promised that more shall be given and that they shall have abundantly yet doubtless they were both of them of such an import in themselves and of such an interpretation with God as to place him in a very near neighbourhood unto them So that if it must be granted that God or the Spirit of God did not in Pauls Conversion act by that Rule which we affirmed to be his odinary or standing Rule observed by him in his actings yet certainly he did herein act by such a rule which holds good correspondence therewith and is of near affinity with it However By what hath been formerly argued and said you may see clearly that it is no derogation from the truth or from the authority of a general rule that there are some instances now and then that do digress and vary from it The credit and authority of the Law or Rule under present consideration is not impaired nor at all shaken thereby because in such Cases there is another Rule and Law of grace though this be a Law of grace too yet there is a Law of superiour grace and of more transcendent goodness which doth over-rule the common and standing Law which God hath thought fit
a service that seems vain rash or needless in the eyes of most men then the glory of it shall shine round about him and he shall see as in a vision of the noon day this conveniency and that this consequence and that attending upon it all great and excellent and worthy and by this means the heart comes to be full of it full of the greatness and the goodness and the worthiness of it full of the sense of the benefit and blessing which it will bring along with it So that though all the world should rise up against him to disswade him from it they could not do it For in such a case there would be no opportunity no roomth in his heart or soul for any carnal disswading interposure to enter or to intermeddle about taking him off from it As when the glory of the Lord had filled the Temple the Priests could not enter into it to do their Office or any work belonging to them here 2 Chron. 7.2 In like manner when the Holy Ghost hath filled the Temple of the soul with the glory of great and high ingagements for God and for the Gospel such reasonings and conceits which are wont to purvey for the flesh and to sacrifice all that comes to net pleasures and profits unto it cannot now find entrance hither to inveigle or intice the hearts or consciences of men to hearken unto them So that we see the truth of this reason That unless men and women be filled with the Spirit of God they will never be able to advance in such waies and courses and to hold out in many practices and services without which the honour of God the reputation and credit of the Gospel of Christ cannot be maintained like unto themselves in the world The Gospel will suffer loss and lose ground unless it be held up and the present interest of it maintained by some such worthy practices and undertakings of the Saints as those we have now spoken of and which we have shewed will hardly be attempted much less performed and carried through with that height of courage and resolution which will make the face of the Gospel to shine unless they that shall be called to be Actors of them shall be so emptied of themselves as to be filled with the Holy Ghost and by this means be lifted up above themselves CHAP. IV. The Doctrine demonstrated by a third ground viz. That we are never like to be any great Benefactors unto the world which yet we stand bound in duty to be unless we be filled with the Spirit He is a great Benefactor unto the world that gives a real account of his believing in Christ Why Abraham called the Father of Believers The force of Example A mans keeping the Commandments of Jesus a great benefit and accommodation unto the world in two respects Gal. 6.2 in part opened 2 Tim. 3.8 in part opened So Eph. 3.14 15 16. The Saints praying for any good thing frequently in their prayer mention the means by which God is wont to give or effect it THe third Reason of the Doctrine is this Sect. 1 Every man stands bound upon this account to be filled with the Spirit of God Because otherwise a man will never become any great and signal benefactor unto the world He will never bless or serve his Generation at any worthy rate or as becomeâ—h an heir apparent to life and immortality to do There are two things in this Reason the one supposed or taken for granted as clear and evident enough in it self the other plainly affirmed That which is supposed is this That it is every mans duty to become a Benefactor and this in some degree considerable unto the world This is nothing but what every man stands charged with by God I mean to be singularly and signally active for the real and crue interest of the world whilst he continueth and abideth in it That which is plainly laid down and affirmed is That a man without being filled with the Spirit will never be in any rich or competent capacity to perform his duty in this kind Now concerning the former though it be a truth shining clear enough with its own light yet because every mans eyes haply are not sufficiently opened to see it let us make a little eye-salve of the Word of God to anoint them with that they may be opened to see it First then that all men are bound to believe in Jesus Christ at least all men that have the Gospel preached unto them though there be little question indeed of others Secondly That they are bound to do the best they can to make the world believe this concerning them I mean that they do indeed believe on him As will the one as the other of these is I suppose every mans apprehension and no mans question or doubt Now if this be true Full that every man and woman of us stands bound to believe in Jesus Christ And secondly to do that which is proper and sufficient to convince the world that we do thus believe it evidently followeth That every man stands bound to do some great and worthy thing for the World and to be a Blessing to his Generation For there is nothing lies within the sphere of humane activity of more worthy or higher accommodation or concernment unto the World than to present it with a clear Vision of the sight of a man Believing with his whole heart in Jesus Christ or else to shew unto men the sight of the World it self Conquered and Overcome by a man With both these sights every such man or woman presenteth the World who telleth the World with authority and power that is by a manifest contempt of the World in all that it can either do for him or against him that he believeth in Jesus Christ There is not a greater sight to be shewed or seen in the world than to shew it plainly and cause it to see distinctly the heart of a throughout Believer in Christ or to shew it in like manner the World Overcome by a weak and mortal man Now both these sights a man doth shew when he doth cast contempt upon the World Such a man presents the World with both these with a man really believing in Jesus Christ and with a man having the World under his feet Most men when they pretend or go about to let the World know that they believe in Jesus Christ speak like unto the Spirits of Divination the manner of whose speaking the Pophet Isaiah describeth by peeping and muttering Isa 8.19 as if they were afraid to speak out or plainly lest they should be taken tardy with speaking a lye being conscious to themselves of their inability positively to declare the truth concerning the things which are inquired about at their hands by their Proselites and Customes In like manner the generality of Professors amongst us who pretend to give the world to know that they believe in Jesus Christ do but peep and
Treatise is gravely and with solidity penned and worthy the perusal of those whose feer are taken in the snare of that Error or others remaining in any measure dis-satisfied about the Point Though the truth is they have as much reason to be dis-satisfied about their Christianity it self and whether Salvation is to be obtained by Jesus Christ and Faith in his bloud as to be dis-satisfied about the Holy Ghost being God We might argue the Deity of the Holy Ghost from other particulars observable Sect. 10 upon such an account from the said passages of Scripture lying yet before us As 1. That Christ saith of him that he should teach them all things 2. That he should bring to their remembrance all things that he had spake to them 3. That he proceedeth from God the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall but only glance at them First our Saviour undertakes for the Holy Ghost that when he comes he shall teach his Disciples all truth To be able to teach all truth is a Royalty too rich to be vested in any Creature it is most worthy God himself and meet only for him The Eph. 3.9 10. Angels learn many things from the Church and from the Min stry and Dispensation of the Gospel there And the Apostle Paul himself professeth of himself and the rest of his fellow Apostles 1 Cor. 13.9 who knew more than all the World besides of the mystery of Christ and of God that they knew but in part Therefore no Angel was in a capacity to teach them all things when as they themselves were in a condition to learn some things of them If it be demanded But how can these two stand together 1. That Christ should say unto the Apostles that the Holy Ghost should teach them all things and lead them into the way of all truth And yet 2. That Paul should say notwithstanding that they knew but in part Can he be said to know but in part who hath been taught all things or led into the way of all Truth I answer 1. That the all things which the Holy Ghost according to our Saviours Promise here was to teach the Disciples is to be restrained to the business in hand which is very frequent in Scripture and so such things as were necessary and meet for them to know in order to the performance of their Apostolical Office as well in teaching as in planting Churches and ordering the Government hereof For it was not for them to know the times and seasons which God had reserved in his own hand Nor doth it follow from hence either that the Holy Ghost was not able to teach them that restrained all things or that the teaching of this restrained all things should be no sufficient proof of the Holy Ghosts being God The former of these is evident enough from the common principle in reason God and Nature as they are not defective in things that be necessary so neither do they abound in things that be superfluous And therefore if the Apostles had no need of any further knowledge of any thing which did any waies conduce to the performance of their great Office as they were Apostles It is not to be conceived that the Holy Ghost should impart such things unto them which were not expedient for them to know The latter viz. That the teaching of that limited all things we speak of especially taken with that Clause that goeth along with it and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Joh. 14.26 is an Argument no waies defective in proof that the Holy Ghost who was to do all these things is truly God this I say is evident from hence For 1. He that shall be able to teach all that was necessary for the Apostles to know for the discharge of their great Office must be supposed to know all the heights and depths of the Scriptures all things that are contained and comprehended there For doubtless there is nothing in the Word of God but what was fitting and necessary for the Apostles to know and understand As namely the sitting and applying of all the Figures Shadows and Ceremonies under the Law to and with the Gospel and so likewise to know and understand all obscure Prophesies for otherwise they might have been foyled and intangled by their Adversaries which would have been matter of prejudice to them in the fulfilling of their Office Now then to be able to do this certainly doth prove sufficiently that he must needs be God For 1 Cor. 2.1 1. saith the Apostle what man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him It is the Spirit within a man who knoweth all the motions of the heart all the Purposes Counsels Hopes Sorrows c. No man knows all these things but the spirit of a man which is within him which is intimous to him and upon the matter himself Even so after the same manner we may say no man knows the things of God but the spirit of God The Spirit God searcheth the deep things of God As the Spirit of a man is privy to the most secret things of a man even so the Spirit of God is privy to the secrets of God So there is no man and consequently no Spirit besides no Creature no Angel though never so great and near unto God in point of Office and Ministry that is able to search the deep things of God but only the Spirit of God which is intimately acquainted with the deep things of God 2. He that was able to bring so the Apostles remembrance whatsoever Christ had said unto them must neds be God because he must know their hearts and their thoughts and what of themselves they did remember without him and withall to know what was worn or blotted out of their memories For I suppose the meaning is not that when the Spirit comes he should be a Remembrancer unto them of such things which they remembred already and therefore it supposes that the Holy Ghost of whom it is said he should remember them of all things that Christ had formerly spoken unto them did know the state of their minds and inward parts and that he knew what things they had or did remember and what things they had forgotten and lost and accordingly shouldsupply them Which is another consideration that doth argue that certainly this Spirit of God this samje great Remembrancer of the Apostles can be no other but God 3. We might also argue from that other Clause where our Saviour describes the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God there being no plurality of Holy Ghosts to be one individual Spirit of Truth And then denotes his Process which proceeds from or out of the Father For both words should be put in from the Father and proceeds out of the Father after an ineffable and inconceivable manner Now if any such Character as this or any near to it can be found to be given of
he will grant the Holy Ghost to be God because speaking of the joynt Testimony of the three together the Apostle calls it the Testimony of God ver 9. If we receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater So that the witness of Father Son and Holy Ghost is the Testimony of God and it is the Testimony of three which are one and the same God One in Essence and in Nature And whereas it is still further argued upon this ground viz. That our Saviour Joh. 17.11 prayes unto his Father that they the Disciples may be one as we are one and this doth imply a unity or oneness in consent and agreement only but it doth not imply a union or oneness in Essence because Christ did not pray that they who believe in him should be one in the same Essence Christ could not pray that the Apostles should be one as they namely Christ and his Father were for it was impossible that they that believe in Christ should be one in Nature and in Essence and distinct only in Person To this the Answer is When Chirst laid this injunction upon his Disciples Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect Mat. 5.48 He did not intend to lay any such command upon them as this namely to be infinitely perfect as God is but that they should advance towards perfection and that he should be their Pattern that they should be as perfect for men as he is for God So when Christ would lay a Pattern before his Father how he would desire that those who do believe should be intirely one and most absolutely knit together as pefect in unity as could be imagined he I say prescribes the most perfect and absolute Pattern of Unity But he doth not imply as if therefore the Disciples or they that believe in him should be one after the same manner that Christ and his Father were one but he prayes that they might be all one that is that God would so deal with the hearts of Believers and so direct them by his Spirit and that he would provoke and stir them up according unto his interest untill they did attain unto and grow up in the most absolute perfection of union and agreement that possibly might be attained unto that they might be of one heart and of one soul as it is said of the Christians in the Acts And in this God doth hear the Prayer of Christ and doth perform it as far as his interest is concerned in it There is another interpretation that might be given of the place that is far more probable and better prepared for the understandings and apprehensions of men by far than that which our Adversary pretendeth as namely that God would make them one as He and his Father is one that is that he would bring his Saints to be one in Consent to be one in the same Truth But doubtless our Saviours Prayer reached further than to a simple consent In a word the meaning of the place is by some conceived to be this in effect and it is a very good interpretation That God the Father would grant unto those who do believe in Christ that they might believe more and more For as he that believeth more in Christ hath a more and greater unity in him than he that believeth less as a thing may cleave closer or faster to a thing and where the thing cleaves faster there is a greater union just so the meaning of the place seems to these to be That God would prevail with his Saints and those that believe in Jesus Christ that they would strive to get further and further closer and closer and more and more united to him that so they might be absolutely one as much as possible might be and withal that one Saint might fortifie and strengthen another more and more and that Jesus Christ who is the stem and stock to whom all the branches were fastened that he might have so much the more honour and glory by having his body reduced into one and so to have it more absolutely compleat The last Scripture we shall insist upon assertively to prove the Holy Ghost to be God shall be Isa 6.2 3. compared with some others Sect. 15 Above stood the Scraphims each one had six wings c. And one cried unto another and said Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory or according to the Hebrew reading in the Margent his glory is fulness of the whole earth Here it is evident that the Angels worshipped the Lord of Hosts and we need not question but that the holy Angels did very well know and understand whom they worshipped and that they were not like the Samaritans who according to our Saviours Testimony concerning them worshipped they knew not what Joh. 4.22 Go we forward to ver 8. Also I heard saith the Prophet here the voice of the Lord meaning the Lord of Hosts whom the Angels worshipped saying whom shall I send and who will go for us Where obiter we may observe a plain intimation of the three persons at least a plurality of persons in the unity of the Divine Essence Whom shall I send and who will go for us In the former Clause where we have a Verb of the Singular number the unity of the Godhead or Divine Essence is signified In the latter where we have a Pronoune of the Plural number the Plurality of Persons subsisting in this Essence But to pass this by the Prophet to this demand of the Lord of Hosts returneth this answer as himself reporteth Here am I send me upon this the Lord said to him go and tell this people Here ye indeed but understand not make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes c. So that comparing these passages together it is evident 1. That he whom the Angels worshipped was the Lord of Hosts and consequently the true yea the most high God And 2. That it was the same Lord of Hosts or the most High God who put the words mentioned into the mouth of the Prophet saying to him Go tell this people c. Now that he that put the words of this Prophesie into the mouth of Isaiah was the Holy Ghost and consequently that the Holy Ghost is the Lord of Hosts and he that was worshipped by the Angels is as evident as evidence it self can make it and this by the unquestionable Testimony of the Apostle Paul Acts 28.25 26. And when they agreed not among themselves they departed after that Paul had spoken one word Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the Prophet unto our Fathers saying Go unto this people and say Hearing ye shall hear and not understand and seeing ye shall see and not perceive For the heart of this people is waxed gross c. What can be more plain than that he who was worshipped by the Seraphims and
their cause I desire to trie their Doctrine and Opinion in the Point in hand whether it be truth or no by that definition or description of the Gospel which the Apostle delivereth 1 Tim. 6.3 and elsewhere calling it a Doctrine according unto Godliness i.e. as heretofore upon occasion we have interpreted a Doctrine every way and in all the parts and veins of it composed and framed for the advancement of Godliness in the World or for the making of men Godly So that every Doctrine or Opinion the face whereof is set towards Godliness and which hath a tendency in it to promote the interest thereof not contradicting or overthrowing another Doctrine which hath a more express and potent tendency to the same end is undoubtedly a vein or branch of the Gospel and consequently from God for that is to be considered at this turn that not every Opinion or Doctrine which hath some inferiour and fainter tendency unto Godliness is hereby evinced to be an Evangelical Truth in case it opposeth and riseth up against another Doctrine which is fuller of the same Spirit than it but only then when the Doctrine or Opinion contrary unto it hath either no tendency at all this way I mean to further Godliness or else only such a tendency in this kind which is weak in comparison of the other As for Instance that God will save those that will live godlily from the wrath and vengeance which ungodly men shall suffer by an utter annihilation of them or by putting them into such a condition as if they had never been born is a Doctrine or Opinion which hath some kind or degree of a tendency unto Godliness as is evident viz. It is better saith our Saviour speaking concerning Judas that a man should never have been born than that he should suffer the vengeance of Eternal fire But because it contradicteth another Doctrine which hath a far more potent and efficacious tendency unto Godliness than it viz. that Doctrine which encourageth and provoketh unto Godliness not by a promise of escaping the wrath which is to come by an utter Annihilation but by the inheritance and enjoyment of eternal blessedness and glory That tendency which the former Doctrine hath unto Godliness is no Argument or Proof that therefore it is a Truth or any part of the Gospel On the other hand that Doctrine that the Saints may lawfully converse in civil affairs with the Fornicators and Covetous or Extortioners of this World as the Apostle speaketh 1 Cor. 6.10 although it hath nothing of that rich and powerful tendency unto Godliness which many other Doctrines of the Gospel have yet is that inferiour tendency that it hath this way an Argument that it is an Evangelical truth because it contradicteth no other Doctrine which hath any superiour tendency unto Godliness than it self Many more instances of both kinds might be given if it were needful any man remembring the Principle or Rule may at leisure and with a little consideration furnish himself with Instances in abundance So then to apply the Rule to the case in hand if upon due consideration it shall appear that that Doctrine which denying the Holy Ghost to be God the most High God affirmeth him to be a Creature opposeth and contradicteth a Doctrine which is of a more express pregnant and potent tendency to the advancement of Godliness than it self certain it is that it is no member of the Doctrine which is according unto Godliness and consequently no truth of the Gospel therefore to make this appear it is to be considered first The greater and more honourable the Agent is that is sent and imployed by God to negotiate his Affairs with men about the things of their eternal Peace and Salvation his Agency or Message is so much the more likely to be regarded by and take place with men themselves As on the other hand the less honourable or worthy the Agent is or is apprehended by men to be who shall be thus imployed the business he is to transact is so much the less likely to succeed or prosper in his hand This Principle is delivered unto us in the Scriptures themselves in the Parable of the Vineyard our Saviour presenteth the Husbandmen to whom it was let out as misusing the Servants or the Lord thereof whilest he sent only persons of this capacity to receive the Fruits of his Vineyard of them The Husbandmen took his Servants saith the Parable Mat. 21.33 and beat one and killed another and stoned another Again he sent other Servants more or rather greater or more honourable for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oft signifieth and they the Husbandmen did unto them likewise Again secondly He presenteth the Lord of this Vineyard by whom God himself according to all Expositors is signified as intending to send his own Son unto them and that upon this account viz. Because he thought that though they neglected and evilly entreated his Servants being inferiour persons comparatively yet they would reverence his Son being a more worthy and honourable person meaning that they would hearken unto him and yield to those terms that he should propound to them From whence it evidently appears that there is so much the greater likelihood that whatsoever God hath to do with men or seeks to bring them over unto they will be the more easily won or prevailed with by how much the greater or more excellent his Agent or Minister is who shall be employed herein The same Principle is asserted also by the Apostle Heb. 2.1 Therefore we ought to give the more carnest heed c. The reason why there is the less hope of escaping the severe judgment of God by those who should despise him that speaketh from heaven as elsewhere he expresseth it the Lord Christ in the Gospel than was of their escaping who despised Moses who notwithstanding were most severely punished even for despising him the Reason I say hereof is this because Jesus Christ is a more honourable Person than Moses was and consequently men were more engaged and bound to hearken unto God and obey him upon His Agency with them than they were in or upon the Agency of the other this reason is intimated in the Text it self as also Heb. 10.28 and 12.25 Upon this ground it was that King Balak sent Princes and Nobles unto the false Prophet Balaam desiring him to come up and to curse the Israelites Num. 22.15 But when God came unto him in a Dream and charged him not to do it Upon this Balak thought that the repulse which he had received from the Prophet was because the Messengers which he had sent were not either great enough in place of honour and dignity or otherwise not competent in number therefore he sendeth more and these more honourable making account that these great persons next unto himself would prevail And upon this account it is the more holy innocent and righteous the Messengers and Ministers of the Gospel are
upon a mistake of the Scriptures and ignorance of the true nature of God First To prove that the Holy Ghost is not truly God they argue thus He that is distinguished from God is not God but the Holy Ghost is distinguished from God therefore he is not God To both these Propositions in order I reply first to the former and then to the latter To the Major or former Proposition I reply by distinguishing or explaining it there being a sense whereof the words are capable wherein it is to be admitted and a sense also wherein it is to be denied and so it is an ambiguous Proposition and of an uncertain signification Therefore when this Proposition saith He that is distinguished from God is not God If his meaning be this that he that is distinguished in Nature and Essence from God is not God the Proposition is most true for that which is â—inite cannot be infinite that which is Created and partaketh not of the increated Nature and Essence of God cannot be God But in this sense of the word distinguished from God the Minor is false for the Holy Spirit is not thus distinguished from God viz. in Essence and Nature as we have formerly proved Secondly The said Proposition that which is distinguished from God is not God may be understood in this sense That that Person who is distinguished from another person who is truly and really God is not God but in this sense it is false and neither is nor can be proved by the Proposers of it For such a person who is distinguished from another person who is God may be God likewise yea the same God with him though not the same person Otherwise it would follow that because the Lord Jesus Christ is often distinguished in the Scriptures from the person of God the Father as when he is called the Son of God and so when it is said that God sent him with the like and also where he is called Jesus it would follow I say that he should be truly God no more than the Spirit or Holy Ghost for these and many such like expressions in the Scriptures import a manifest distinction between him and God the Father Nor doth it therefore prove that because the Son is distinct from the Father that he is not God yea as the Scripture frequently distinguisheth between God and the Father therefore if the Proposition before us were true in the latter sense it would follow that neither should the Father be God because as I say the Scriptures distinguish him from God as Rom. 15.6 God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ You have the same expression 2 Cor. 1.3 So also Ephes 1.3 Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ So likewise Eph. 5.20 Unto God and the Father to omit others But the Author and Avoucher of the Argument now in hand cryeth ouâ— upon that distinction which is made between the Essence and Person of God terming it a wretched distinction and an ignorant refuge What he meaneth by a wretched distinction I do not well know or understand if he therefore termeth it wretched because it is poor and destitute of means or friends to support it he had small reason so to defame it For certain it is that it hath both means and Friends in abundance to support it it hath the whole glory in a manner of all the chief and choice Gifts Parts Wisdom Learning that hath been found in the Christian World from the daies of the Apostles untill now to stand by it and maintain it which have ministred Arguments and Proofs very bountifully unto it for its defense therefore in this sense it is not it cannot be wretched upon the same account he had small reason to call it an ignorant refuge That which had all the Wisdom Knowledge and Learning well nigh of all the Christian World to erect and build it cannot reasonably be suspected for an ignorant refuge If he calleth it a wretched distinction because it is the object of his hatred and he meant so to handle it so to bruise batter and deface it by bending the force of his Wit and Learning against it that hereby it should become desolate and miserable his spirit of Prophesie hath failed him at this point For the distinction is at this day notwithstanding all the contempt he hath poured upon it all that he hath done to misfigure it it is in as much honour and esteem with sober learned and understanding men as before yea his ignorant Zeal to dishonour and disparage it hath provoked the learned zeal of many to maintain it yea and to add more beauty and strength unto it But leaving his swelling words of vanity against this distinction let us hear and consider what his more sober and express Arguments or Reasons are against it First he saith That it is unheard of in Scriptures and so to be rejected it being presumption to affirm any thing of the unsearchable Nature of God which he hath not first affirmed of himself in the Scriptures these are his own words By the way before we come to reply to this Reason it is not unworthy observation how directly he treadeth in the steps of those who have a mind to oppose that which they fear they cannot solidly and substantially confute or overthrow For whereas those men whom he would be thought to oppose in his Doctrine against the Godhead of the Holy Ghost are wont to distinguish between God taken Personally and Essentially he represents them as if they distinguished between the Essence and Person of God which distinction is of a much differing import from the former I do not remember any learned man that ever asserted a distinction a real distinction of which our Adversaries seem to speak between the Essence of God and the Person of God as if the Essence or Nature of God were one thing and the Person of God or any Person in the Godhead another thing differing really from it yet the distinction of God taken Essentially and Personally is frequent amongst those who write about the Trinity How the word God may be taken sometimes Essentially and otherwhile Personally without supposing any real difference between the Essence of God and a Person in the Godhead may be shewed in due time or however may appear by what God shall enable us to speak upon the subject matter in hand But to the Reason or Argument propounded against the distinction of God taken Personally and Essentially viz. it is unheard of in the Scriptures I reply first that if he meaneth that these words Personally and Essentially are not literally or formally found in the Scriptures in this sense the truth of his Argument is granted But the pertinency and strength of it in point of proof of that which he infers from it viz. that therefore it is to be rejected is denied For it doth not follow that every distinction the terms whereof are not in expressness of words
in the Antecedent of the Proposition be supposed to signifie either something or nothing either that which is or that which is not yet it doth not follow that it should be determinately either something or nothing from hence because it is distinct from the Essence of God so that the Major Proposition in this Syllogism vanisheth into a meer Nothing Thirdly Whereas in the process of his Argument he reasoneth thus If finite meaning if a Person be finite then there will be something finite in God if infinite then there will be two infinites in God the Person and the Essence both which he presumeth are accounted absurd by his Adversaries themselves We reply First that whatsoever his Adversaries do in the case he himself holdeth not only that there is something finite in God but that all things appertaining to him are finite For holding the Essence of God to be finite and locally circumscribed he must consequently hold and maintain that all other things belonging to his Essence are finite and circumscribed also so that it is no absurdity with him to grant that there is something finite in God But he that granteth Passions also properly and formally so called in God as Anger Grief Sorrow and consequently an obnoxiousness or an exposedness unto Trouble Pain Torment yea and death it self for all this directly followeth upon such a Tenent it is no marvel if he holds all things finite in God But secondly I reply further that it no way follows that if a person be infinite and the Essence infinite that there should be two infinites in God The Reason is plain because the Person and the Essence are not two things really distinct the one from the other but in consideration only That is a common and true Saying amongst Divines In Trinitate omnia sunt unum ubi non obviat relationis oppositio All things in the Trinity are one excepting only where the opposition of relation cometh in the way viz. The Father is not the Son nor the Son the Father nor the Holy Ghost either nor either the Holy Ghost yet they are all one and the same Essence and consequently one and the same Infinite yet doth it not follow that because there are more persons or a plurality of persons that therefore there is a plurality or more than one Essence for it is the Essence to which properly or primarily the Attributes do belong and not the Persons I beseech you mind this Rule which will give a great light into this deep Mystery It is the Essence to which properly and primarily the Attributes do belong and not the person they do belong indeed to the person but only in consideration of the Essence whereof each Person partakes As for instance the Father is not infinite and so is not Omniscient and Omnipresent because he is the Father but because he is God i.e. because he partakes and subsists in the Divine Essence So likewise the Second Person the Son is not therefore infinite because he is a Person or because he is the Son but because he is God i. e. one and the same really with the Divine Essence there is the same reason of the Holy Ghost So that though the Father be infinite and the Son infinite and the Holy Ghost infinite and the Divine Essence infinite yet it doth not follow that there should be three infinites or any more than one because the Essence is but one to which the Attribute of Infinity belongeth And the Persons as they partake of the Divine Essence which is but one so they partake of the Infinity belonging to this Essence which is but one neither As it may be truly said that Sarahs Husband had a great Estate and Isaac's Father had a great Estate and the Father of the Faithful had a great Estate yet it will not follow that therefore here were three great Estates the Reason is because all the Relations were really founded in one and the self-same person called Abraham and the Estate did not belong to him either as he was Sarahs Husband or Isaac's Father or the Father of the Faithful but as he was such a person enriched by God I might shew you further how the divine Attributes as we call them are founded not in the Person but in the Essence But this sufficeth for reply to the second Reason against the distinction of God taken Essentially and Personally Thirdly and lastly The last Reason against the distinction of God taken Personally and Essentially take it in his own words Sect. 7 Thirdly to talk of God taken only Essentially is ridiculous not only because there is no Example thereof in the Scripture but because God is the name of a Person and signifieth him that ruleth over others and when it is put for the most High God it denoteth him who with soveraign and absolute Authority ruleth over all But none but a Person can rule over others all actions being proper to persons wherefore to take God otherwise than Personally is to take him otherwise than he is and indeed to mistake him To this also we reply First When he saith That to talk of God taken only Essentially is ridiculous how ridiculously himself speaketh hath been formerly shewed in part and will further appear when we shall weigh the grounds of his windy confidence in the balance of the Sanctuary For first Whereas he saith There is no example in the Scripture this saying of his hath already been weighed and found too light Secondly When he saith That God is the name of a Person and when it is put for the most High God it denoteth him who with soveraign Authority ruleth over all c. We reply by denying that God is alwaies the name of a Person For when we say that the Father is God and again that the Son is God the word God is not the name of a Person nor doth it signifie a Person as such But rather the Divine Nature and Essence wherein both the Father and the Son equally partake according to our sense and the truth it self And in the sense of our Adversarie who denieth the Son to be the same God with the Father yet granteth him to be God it must needs signifie or denote some property priviledge or the like wherein they both partake For certainly the Son can in no sense whatsoever be termed God unless there be same Agreement Similitude or Partnership in something or other with him that is God indeed or as our Adversaries love to speak the most High God so that when according to the same sense of our Adversaries the Son is called God the word God doth not denote the proper name of a person but denoteth and is a word importing something that is common to more persons than one Thirdly and lastly When he saith That when it is put for the most High God it signifieth him that with soveraign Authority ruleth over all and addeth That all Actions are proper unto persons c. We
followeth Sect. 11 He that receiveth of another is not God the Holy Spirit doth so i. e. receiveth of another therefore he is not God The Minor is witnessed from Joh. 16.14 The Major is proved thus God is he that giveth all things unto all wherefore if there be any one that receiveth of another he cannot be God The Antecedent is plain from Acts 17.25 Rom. 11.35 36. The Consequence is undeniable because he that is deficient is not God he that receiveth from another is deficient therefore he is not God The Major is unquestionable for to say one is deficient which implyeth imperfection and yet is God is in effect to say that he is God and not God This is the compass likewise of the fifth Argument the strength of this Argument such as it is is easie enough to be discerned the stress of it resteth upon these words of Christ as you may perceive concerning the Spirit Joh. 16.14 He shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you because he is here said to be a Receiver therefore our Adversary cannot allow him to be God because saith he God is he that gives all things unto all and it implieth a contradiction that he that giveth all things unto all should receive any thing from any but amongst all his Arguments this is the first born amongst the poor For I reply first Though God in a sense be said to give all things unto all yet withal he is said also in a sense proper enough to receive several things and this without any contradiction at all He is said to receive the Prayers of his Saints Psal 6.9 To receive the Saints themselves Psal 49.15 73.24 To receive comfort Isa 57.6 And so to receive glory and honour and power Rev. 4.11 Therefore this Proposition is most untrue He that receiveth of another is not God yea he may be and is God who receiveth something from another as we have heard Nor is it the proper notion of dependency to receive of another these things are very loosely and unduly affirmed God is sometimes in Scriptures said to give all things unto all because he giveth unto all all things which they stand possessed of He gives them Faculties Principles Strength and means to do all things which they do and in this sense he may be said to give them all the actions motions and workings also which they act and work and consequently those very Praises and acknowledgements which yet he receiveth from them too As for example He that gives a man money wherewith to buy such a commodity he may very properly be said to give him the things which are purchased with the money And so the Scripture Phrase runneth for he is thy money speaking of the Servant So when God eâ—dneth a Creature with strength and power to get wealth he may be said to give him wealth it self which he did allow him by means of that power and understanding infused into him God's giving all things unto all in this sense doth not hinder but that he may receive also many of these very things which he giveth in the sense declared therefore it is no infallible Character of a true God not to receive from another The Apostle himself in that very Scripture which the Argument citeth Acts 17.25 saying That God is not to be worshipped with mens hands as though he needed any thing clearly implieth that God may receive things from his Creatures but not upon any such account as this viz. As if he needed any thing meaning for he bettering of his own condition or compleating of his happiness and unless our Adversary can prove that the Holy Ghost received what was Christs for his own necessities and supplies The simple receiving of it doth no way incumber the plea of his Godhead 2. When our Saviour speaking of the Holy Ghost saith He shall receive or shall take as the word signifieth and is accordingly translated in the next verse of mine and shall shew it unto you he doth not imply as if the Holy Ghost had not then when Christ thus spake received or taken that or those things of his for it is certain that he had taken these things of Christ under the Old Testament and had revealed them unto the Prophets of God and other holy men and by these unto the World as is very evident from many Scriptures yea certain it is that he had received them from Eternity but our Saviour's meaning in the Clause or Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall take of that which is mine seems to be this That whereas the Holy Ghost had viz. in his mind or understanding both at present and ever before abundance of that which was Christs even his whole Treasury his relation to his Father his Godhead his Incarnation his Infinite Grace Love Sweetness Holiness c. together with all his Counsels Purposes and Intentions concerning the World c. He should when he should visibly be given and come unto them take not simply this or all this But he should take viz. of himself and out of the Treasury of his own understanding so much or such particulars concerning Christ to reveal unto them which should be necessary for them to know either for their own comfort or to furnish or accomplish them for the great Office and work of Apostles in the World So that the word take in this place The Holy Ghost shall take of mine is used in some such sense as when a man is said to take a thing which is already his own or in his own possession only in order to the doing of something with it in this sense God saith Zach. 11.10 I took my staff even beauty and cut it asunder The staffe he speaks of was in his possession before only he is said to have taken it in order to cutting it asunder So again The Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 13.33 is like unto Leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal to name no more places in this kind ver 31. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of Mustard-seed which a man took and sowed in his Field 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So in the words before us The Spirit shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you i. e. From amongst many other things which he knows concerning me he shall take such and such which shall be needful for you to know and shall reveal them unto you Even as a prudent Minister or Scribe instructed for the Kingdom of heaven As our Saviour speaks out of the rich and full treasure of his understanding taketh and chuseth such and such particular notions and veins of spiritual truth relating unto God and Jesus Christ which he judgeth meet to be delivered and imparted to such and such a people The words taken in such a sense as this do no way favour the dangerous conceit of our Adversaries that the Holy Ghost is not God There is another sense likewise wherein the
or enfeebled thine hand now this doth argue a rich presence of the Spirit of God especially in conjunction with the other things mentioned And so again when the fruits and expressions of their love to Jesus Christ or his Saints and Followers shall be very large and fair such as shall be found in none but themselves and perhaps in here one and there one besides as when either with the poor Widow in the Gospel they shall cast in their whole substance or livelihood into the Treasury of God or else shall sacrifice some great and notable opportunity of worldly advantage upon the Service of God and of the People of God especially if they shall do this once and again and as often as any opportunity affords it self unto them this cannot but argue an excellent fulness of the Spirit of God The Tree saith our Saviour is known by the Fruit and this not only in respect of the kind or property of it which is the knowledge spoken of by our Saviour But likewise in the degree of it not only good in the kind and of the same nature but also the best of the kind for goodness Eighthly Sect. 19 Another discovering Character of a persons being filled with the Spirit of God is when he is able and willing they are both one in this case to take up any Cross though never so heavy that he shall meet withal in the way of Righteousness and of God without any declining or turning aside out of his way to avoid it This is a great sign and argument of conviction that certainly he is filled with the Spirit of God especially when he shall suffer Patience to have its perfect work as James speaks i. e. shall be content chearfully and without muttering or complaint to suffer all that God shall call him to suffer though the Iniquity of those who persecute in one kind or other abound never so much yet he will not so much as stoop or step out of the way for it but shall keep strait course in the waies of God in the view of the World there cannot be a more promising sign or symptome of a person being filled with the Spirit of God than this The reason of this is because all kinds of sufferings are contrary to the Flesh and destructive to the interest thereof and unless it be to accommodate the Flesh at some other turn and in some other way no man that can decline them will expose himself unto them but only such who are strengthened by the Spirit of God in the inward man The Apostle Paul in laying down the signs of his Apostleship 2 Cor. 12.12 presents patience under trouble a willingness to suffer all and all manner of afflictions for the Gospels sake For one among the rest If a man have a proportionable aid and assistance of the Spirit of God though he do put his shoulder under the burthen of affliction yet being acted and assisted by this Spirit the Flesh will not feel any bitterness or trouble in it Col. 1.11 Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all long suffering and patience with joyfulness 1 Thes 3.3 That no man should be moved by their afflictions He acquaints them in the precedent Verse that he had sent Timothy unto them to confirm and establish them in the Faith and in the things which they now had believed And that for this end that no man should be moved by any of those things which they suffered Therefore saith the Apostle I sent him unto you to hear of your faith lest that by any means you should be tempted implying that persecution is a sore kind of temptation this is like the Axe that is laid to the root of the Tree This he knew would put them to it and be a means even to endanger the shaking of their Faith and to tell the World that they did only make a shew of believing but were not established in the truth So again 1 Thes 1.3 5 6. Remembring without ceasing your work of faith and labour of love and your patience of hope c. For our Gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost c. As ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake having received the Word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost Now this is that I say had they not had the Holy Ghost to stand by them as they would never have received the Gospel so neither without a rich presence of him would they ever have persevered therein in a day of persecution This then is the reason of the Character or sign in the eighth place Ninthly and lastly A fulness with the Spirit of God is discernable by a rich and inward acquaintance with the mind and will of God and of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures Sect. 20 When a man or woman knows more understands more of the mind of Christ in the Gospel hath more of things secret and hidden unto others discovered and made known unto them this argues that the Spirit dwelleth plentifully in them only there are two particulars to be considered and remembred First That for men and women to pretend to a knowledge of the mind of God in the Scriptures above other persons and to be confident of their own apprehensions and conceits in this kind is nothing is no Argument or proof at all that therefore they do know the mind of Christ in the Scriptures more or better than other men or consequently that they are persons filled with the Spirit of God For all this may be men and women may see the Visions of their own hearts as the Scripture speaketh and be as confident as confidence it self can make them that they are Visions of God and verily think as Paul himself sometimes did in like case that they see the Visions of God The false Prophets of old who walked in the Spirit of falshood or as some read the words in the wind of falshood Mic. 2.11 These were as confident of their Visions as the Prophets of God could be See an instance in Zedekiah the Son of Chenaanah 1 Kings 22.11 He was so confident that he would needs make himself two Iron horns to push the Syrians withal until they were consumed Michaiah the true Prophet of God was not more confident of the Vision which he had seen And so the Pharisees in the Gospel Joh. 9.40 Are we blind also As who should say If any men in all the World doth see and know and understand the mind of God we do we can well bear that thou shouldst look upon the rest of the World the ordinary sort of people as blind but we pray thee do not make us blind also clearly implying and that with the greatest indignation that whatsoever he should speak that should intimate in the least that they should not know the mind of God that that must be most false And in these daies
on the one hand and on the other that they are at a loss within themselves and troubled in their spirits because they cannot reach or attain that fulness of assurance in Judgment or Understanding in the case which they desire Now it may the question of some such person what is best to be done in the case Whether it be better and safer to Neutralize between these two Opinions and hang in suspense like a Meteor in the air between Heaven and Earth or else to fall in and close in his Judgment either with the one Opinion or with the other To this I reply First Though there be some kind of Opinions and Tenents in matters appertaining to Religion wherein a modesty and tenderness in Judgment do well become the gravest and best-grown Christians viz. such wherein either the Arguments on both sides have much probability and strength of reason at least seeming strength of reason in them or else where there is little can be produced on either side for the satisfying of the Judgment or eviction of the truth Although I say in doubts and questions of this nature a modest tenderness of Judgment is not unworthy a sober and sound Christian yet an absolute Scepticism or meer Neutrality of Judgment in these or any other questions doth not answer the state and dignity of a Christian one who desires to be thought a man in understanding The Reason is because there are hardly any Positions or Opinions whether truth or error but have somewhat either in themselves in their own constitution and frame or else in some consideration or other relating to them and this accessible enough which is sufficient to found or build some lighter estimate at least upon their agreement either with errour or with truth Now to be ignorant in this case or not apprehensive of such things the knowledge of which is proper to encline at least the Judgment and withal may with competent search and consideration be obtained is not honourable for him who is esteemed spiritual or skilful in the word of Righteousness But Secondly Concerning the Question before us viz. about the Deity or Godhead of the Holy Ghost the nature and condition of it is such that there is no place or possibility for a meer Neutrality or suspension of Judgment about it Men and women must of necessity take either the right hand or the left and go along with the one Opinion or the other The reason is because the Question as well in the Affirmative part of it as in the Negative relates unto Practice yea it relates unto two such Practices which in the Language of Logicians are contraria immediata such contraries which admit no Mediums between them He that denies the Deity of the Holy Ghost and holds that he is not God cannot honour him with that honour which is proper unto God only but at most with such a kind of honour which is competent to an excellent Creature As on the other hand he that believeth the Holy Ghost to be very God cannot but worship him as God Now it is impossible but that a man or woman must either honour the Holy Ghost as God or not as God for if he judgeth him to be a Creature or created Spirit now he doth not honour him as God If he judgeth him to be an increated Spirit and God himself now he honoureth him at least in this his Judgment of him as God So that if a man or woman shall think to say and hold thus I will neither judge or think him to be either a finite and created Spirit on the one hand nor yet an infinite or increated Spirit on the other hand This is a kind of inconsistency and it plainly enough supposeth that such a person doth not judge or think him to be God and refuseth or neglecteth to exhibite divine honour unto him which being interpreted is a denial of his Godhead So that evident it is that in the Question about the Holy Ghost's being God there is no place nor possibility for a neutrality of judgment or Opinion but we must of necessity at least in our practice or behaviour towards him conclude him either to be God or not God Well then this being supposed Sect. 12 it may haply be some mans question The case being so with us that we are intangled and perplexed in our Judgments and Consciences between the Arguments on the one hand and the Arguments on the other hand and are not able clearly to satisfie our selves either touching the sufficiency or insufficiency of the Scriptures and other grounds insisted on by men of the one Opinion and the other What is best and safest and most Christian like to be done in such a case as this I reply There being two kinds of Arguments or Reasons as Logicians distinguish them whereby Positions or Tenents are wont to be proved Artificial and Inartificial by Artificial the meaning is those that are levied and wrought out by the light and strength of the understanding from general Principles By Inartificial the testimony or consent of Judgment amongst men about a matter when a man can make no earnings of the former those that are Artificial but these on both sides seem to balance the one the other or it may be are demonstrative or satisfactory on neither hand then the best and safest way is to have recourse unto the latter the Authority Testimony or Consent of Judgment amongst men especially men who are most competent to be heard and regarded in such cases When satisfaction I say cannot be had touching the mind of God or the true sense and meaning of such and such Texts of Scripture which are wont to be insisted on for the proof of such or such a Doctrine or Tenent one or more neither from other Scriptures nor yet from any clear or undoubted Principle in Reason The safest course in this case especially where there is no place for a Neutrality in Judgment which we have shewed to be the case in the Point in hand is to have recourse to the sense and Judgment of the Churches of Christ in all Ages or to the Judgments of those whom God hath raised up from time to time to be Teachers and Instructers of his People We find that the Apostle Paul himself did attribute much to the Authority and Judgment of the Churches of Christ in such cases wherein a clear and satisfactory issue was hard to come at either by Scriptures or Argument otherwise As in the Question about mens Prophesying with their heads uncovered But saith he if any man seem contentious we have no such custome neither the Churches of God 1 Cor. 11.16 Meaning that if any person remained yet unsatisfied or unconvinced touching the meetness of such an habit both for men and women in the Church during the time of the publick Worship of God whether by Prayer or by Prophesying as he had now commended unto them and pleaded for but would still pretend
dissatisfaction and contradict and be contentious such ought to know and consider for their satisfaction that neither they the Apostles nor yet the Churches of God far or near had in the case mentioned any such custome which was contrary unto and differing from that which now they had commended unto them So the great Prophet David long before judged it an absurdity a thing unworthy of him to act any thing wherein he should offend against or condemn the generation of the Righteous Psal 73.15 meaning the generality of Saints or persons fearing God So that the Authority Testimony and Consent of Christians in their several Generations in matters concerning their Profession and Religion ought to be and alwaies hath been amongst the best and soundest Christians of very great esteem especially when matters in question between themselves could not be cleared issued or determined otherwise And they that in such cases would not be satisfied herewith were still looked upon by sober Christians as men of proud turbulent and unpeaceable spirits according to the saying of an ancient Writer Contra rationem nemo sobrius Contra Scripturas nemo Christianus Contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus And it is a saying of a learned Country-man of our own Doctor White Hominem Christianum nunquam eum arbitrabor qui judicium Ecclesiae nihili fecerit Another late Writer of great note and worth hath this saying Quod per omnem Ecclesiam receptum est disputando velle in cotroversiam vocare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est Now then for the swaying and ordering of our Judgments in the Question in hand in case we be at a loss or at a stand in respect of all artificial Arguments and Proofs from the Scriptures certainly the Judgment of the Christian Churches and of the learned Teachers thereof in all Ages is of the most and safest concernment unto us What their sense in the case more generally is and from the Apostles time hath been we shall shew presently Secondly Sect. 13 Suppose this to be the case that we are travelling in a Journey we come where there is a diversity of waies one on this hand another on that hand and being strangers in the Country we know not which of the two waies leads to the place whither we are going only we are certainly informed that many sober and understanding persons who have travelled to the same place whither we are going and were careful in their Journey to find out the right way went that way for example which lieth on the right hand and that very few and these little considerable otherwise went the other way that lieth on the left hand Is it not then much more reasonable that in this uncertainty we should take that way which hath been most occupied and beaten by the feet of so many discreet and wary Travellers who we have the greatest grounds of confidence to believe are safely arrived at the place whither they intended their Journey and we intend ours also than to adventure our selves in the other way concerning which we know not whether ever any person travelling in it came in peace to his Journeys end This is the case between the two Opinions before us that which denieth the Holy Ghost to be God the same God in Essence or Substance with the Father and that which confesseth or believeth him to be God equal with the Father Now then there is on the right hand way those who say that the Holy Ghost is God the most high God And there are on the left hand those also who deny him to be the most High God But those that went on the right hand way were the generality of Christians which were most sober and most learned and fullest of Piety and Zeal who believed the Holy Ghost to be God indeed one and the same God with the Father and concerning these viz. the generality of ancient Fathers and Christian Martyrs of old and Confessours in the Primitive times and the great body of Christians taught and instructed by them we have the greatest assurance that lightly can be that these are safely arrived at the place whereunto they travelled which is the Kingdom of Heaven Whereas concerning those who have gone the other way which saith the Holy Ghost is not God but a created and finite Spirit as they are very inconsiderable as I said being compared with those that have gone the other way so were they viz. the greatest number of those few the greatest Persecutors that ever the Christian Churches met withal For it is generally acknowledged that the Arian Persecution was the greatest that ever was and that it rose from out of them And for the course of their lives they are not therein comparable to the generality of those that are gone the other way So that in such a case as this it is easie to determine what is best becoming Christians to do if they should be strangers to both the Opinions If they do not know but that the one may be as good as the other yet inasmuch as the generality and best sort of Travellers those who are of the best credit and most judicious have gone that way which we are contending for it is most safe and most acceptable in the eyes of God who loveth that men should act according to Principles of Reason for men in their judgment to go along with such For certainly after a consciencious search and enquiry about the truth in any matter of question in Christian Religion if we cannot come by the light of any Argument from the Scriptures to satisfie our selves touching the truth therein God himself doth send us for our resolution to the footsteps of the Flock and to the Shepherds Tents I mean to the Authority and Judgment of the Churches of Christ in their Generation Thirdly Sect. 14 Though God in his Law Exod. 23.2 prohibiteth men to follow a multitude to do evil what multitude soever it be and consequently to joyn with a multitude in receiving or taking up an Error yet of the two it is better I mean it is far the lesser sin and less provoking in the sight of God to follow a multitude of grave wise and consciencious persons upon the terms specified though it be as to matter of issue and event to take up an erroneous Perswasion or Opinion than it is to forsake such a multitude as we speak of grave wise c. though a man should peradventure embrace the truth it is more safe for a man to take up an error with such a Multitude than to go alone or with some few or inconsiderate or inconsiderable ones only The reason is because it is much more reasonable to expect the truth amongst a multitude of grave sober and consciencious persons who are studious of the truth than to expect it amongst a few inconsiderable persons comparatively concerning whose integrity or unfeigned love to the truth there is much more doubt and question Now this also is the case before us
The Fathers generally of greatest esteem in this Generation for Piety Holiness Learning and Faithfulness in the Work of Christ and of the Gospel and consequently we may conclude the generality of Christians who were taught by them and so the Martyrs and Confessors in the purest times of the Church were of this opinion and belief that the Holy Ghost was an Increated Spirit and truly God I might detain you many hours yea many daies in presenting you with passages and sayings of this nature I shall insist upon some few only for the present Austin is known to be a most studious and diligent enquirer into that Faith I mean those Doctrines and Tenents which had been generally held and maintained in the Christian Churches a long time before and from the Apostles daies till his time and to have had means and opportunity to attain to a perfect knowledge of this Faith and withal is known to have been defensor acerrimus a most zealous defender of it He then in his First Book de Trinit Cap. 6. having occasion to mention that of the Apostle Rom. 11.36 And reading the words thus For of him and through him and in him are all things to whom be glory for ever He glosseth them thus Ex ipso i. e. ex Patre per ipsum i.e. per Filium in ipso i.e. in Spiritu Sancto manifestum quod Pater Filius Spiritus Sanctus unus Deus est quando singulariter intulit Ipsi gloria in sacula saeculorum Of him i.e. the Father saith he By him that is by the Son In him that is in the Holy Ghost it is manifest that the Father Son and Holy Ghost is one God inasmuch as he the Apostle infers in the Singular number To him be glory for ever and ever And in his Fifth Book of the same Subject I mean de Trinitate Sed sicut Pater Filius unus Deus ad Creaturam relativè unus Creator unus Dominus sic relativè ad Spiritum Sanctum unum Principium Ad Creaturam verò Pater Filius Spiritus Sanctus unum Principium sicut unus Creator unus Dominus And not long after Similiter de Spiritu Sancto collecta sunt testimonia quibus ante nos qui haec disputaverunt abundantiùs usi sunt quia ipse Deus non Creatura Quod si non Creatura non tantùm Deus nam homines dicti sunt Dii sed verus Deus ergò Patri Filio prorsus aequalis in Trinitatis unitate consubstantialis coaeternus Athanasius lived well nigh an hundred years before Austin and he in that Symbol or Creed which beareth his name is so punctual and precise in this business touching the Godhead of the Holy Ghost that having asserted it he useth these words This saith he is the Catholick Faith which except a man believe undoubtedly he cannot be saved so that he was quite contrary to that Spirit which now standeth up against the Godhead of the Holy Ghost yea these very Fathers Ignatius Justin Martyr Jerome Tertullian Lactantius Hilary c. whom our Adversaries profess to stand by them as if if they spake on their side and against the Deity of the Holy Ghost when the very truth is they are so express and so significant to the contrary that I cannot but account it a little strange that such a claim though I believe it is not without much regret should be laid unto them But our Adversaries perhaps taking some words from these Fathers wherein they do not so fully declare themselves as having declared themselves elsewhere and not minding or at least not well heeding their fuller explication of themselves they will needs bear men in hand that they were of their Opinion Ignatius was the most ancient of them all in a Religious Epistle written to the Christians in Antioch his words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore every one who Prâ—â—heth or professeth one only God to the taking away or denying of the Godhead of Christ he is a Devil or a Slanderer and an Enemy of all Righteousness Now for the most part they that deny the Deity and Divinity of Christ they do the like concerning the Holy Ghost But they who desire farther satisfaction in this kind and to know the full clear and unquestionable Judgment of the ancient Doctors and Churches from the Apostles times may without much trouble satisfie themselves for there are many learned Writers that have taken pains herein If it be objected But is it not a thing of dangerous consequence Sect. 15 and no less than horrid Idolatry a thing which God will severely punish to give the glory of his Godhead unto an another unto any Creature of his or to introduce a plurality of Gods into the World Therefore had not men need to consider narrowly and to bethink themselves over and over how they give up their Judgments and Consciences to such an opinion which maketh the Holy Ghost to be truly God I reply First That as it is a dangerous consequence and no less than horrid Idolatry to give the glory of the Godhead of him who is God indeed the true God unto another unto any Creature in which respect men and women had need be careful above all care that their feet be not taken in such a snare so on the other hand it is altogether as dangerous and Idolatry of as vile a nature and threatning consequence not to acknowledge and reverence him as God who is God indeed And in this respect men and women had need be abundantly solicitous and cautious how they entertain and admit of that Doctrine which denieth the Holy Ghost to be God For in case it shall prove that he is God all they who shall deny him to be God will be found fighters against God which will be worse than simple Idolatry and a sin as threatning and of as dangerous a consequence as the other Secondly Not to acknowledge not to glorifie God as God or as himself especially as he hath revealed himself in his Word is if not plain and express Idolatry yet a very high misdemeanour against God therefore in case God hath revealed himself in his Word to be Three in One and One in Three which is and hath been the sense in a manner some few persons only excepted inconsiderable both in their number and otherwise comparatively of the whole Christian World Fathers Martyrs Confessors Pastors Teachers Bodies of Christian Churches ever since the Apostles daies as was lately shewed They who do not thus acknowledge worship and glorifie him and consequently do not acknowledge and own him as God contract the guilt and expose themselves to the punishment of such a Crime Therefore men and women had need take heed how they reject or deny the Godhead of the Holy Ghost lest by so doing they make a God unto themselves according to their own fansie and worship him after their own imaginations Thirdly Sect.
wherein the Holy Ghost much delighteth as Isa 60.6 22. For the other Scripture mentioned Sect. 8 1 Joh. 2.27 But the anointing which ye have received of him remaineth or abideth in you and ye need not that any man should teach you but as the anointing teacheth you c. implying that the former things which he had written to them concerning those that seduced them that is those men who went about to seduce them according to the Language of the Scripture wherein when any Impostor perswadeth or useth means to seduce he is said to seduce though the persons thus perswaded are not actually seduced As these Christians were not actually seduced and yet he writeth to them concerning those that seduced them and then he closeth his Admonition thus But saith he the anointing which ye have received of him meaning Christ abideth in you As if he had said it is true that which I have written is in order to fortifie and to strengthen you against those who go about to ensnare and entangle you but saith he you have another means and help in your selves by which to preserve your selves from them and from their snares Now by this anointing I suppose he means not properly the Holy Ghost though he was in them and according to Scripture-phrase may be very properly said to abide in them But by anointing I conceive he rather means the work of the Spirit which he had wrought in them that is the impressions of Holiness Righteousness and Goodness their love to God and Men. This is that anointing which they had received and saith he you need not that any man teach you but as this anointing teacheth you meaning that they needed not that any thing should be offered unto them but that whereof they might be competent Judges by means of those holy Principles of Righteousness and Love which the Holy Ghost had wrought and raised in them For the Gospel in the whole compass or circumference of it being a Doctrine according unto godliness men that have a Principle of Godliness rich and full and any whit raised may sent any Doctrine and if they will but consult with the Oracles in their own breasts they may find out and come to understand whether it be according unto Godliness yea or no. If it carrieth any repugnancy unto Godliness or unto Holiness then saith he you have no need of it you are better without it This anointing is truth and it is no lie As if he had said they themselves could not but know it for Godliness is a real Propensity of heart and soul unto that which is Good Just and Righteous and which maketh for the glory of God and well-being of men these are the Royal things of God not liable to any dispute whether they be true or whether they be false delusions therefore saith he having such an anointing within you you need not that any man should teach you any thing lying above the reach of this For let any Doctrine or Practice whatsoever come to you if it comport and fall in with this Principle then you may receive it And he plainly implieth here that though the same anointing teacheth all things yet they that had this anointing had need that men should teach them according as this teacheth them And the truth is that men and women that are godly and have this anointing in the fullest measure have need to be taught those things which are consonant and agreeable to this anointing and which will nourish enlarge quicken and revive it So that this place is so far from countenancing that Notion or Practice by which men turn aside from the Ministry of the Gospel that it proveth and that very clear that they indeed ought to attend upon it The persons now under reproof Sect. 9 besides what they pretend and plead directly and immediately from the Scriptures have other Arguments and Pleas to harden themselves in their Practice Let us therefore deal with them as sober men use to deal with them that are frantick and mad when they have gotten Knives or Swords wherewith they are like to do either themselves or others a mischief they wrest them out of their hands In like manner let us try by evidence and strength of reason and of truth to take away those weapons at least the chief of them wherein they put their trust One thing they pretend why they should not attend upon the Ministry of the Gospel is that the Ministers in these daies are not infallible We cannot safely depend upon them in what they teach us they may lead us into error as well as truth Is not this a Consideration sufficient to justifie us in our taking our selves off from hearing them To this I reply First By putting the question to them Whether they judge themselves to be infallible or no If they answer Affirmatively that they do judge themselves infallible which I suppose they will not then Why should not the Ministers of the Gospel be as infallible as they Besides if they be infallible What need they fear of being led aside into Error by the Ministers of the Gospel But it is like they will reply Negatively and grant that they are not infallible If so why then do they depend upon themselves or upon their own Notions or Apprehensions or upon their own senses and interpretations of Scripture May they not as well be mistaken and deceived by leaning unto these as unto such things which shall be by the Ministers of the Gospel delivered unto them Or will these persons themselves be only Sceptiques and profess that they are absolute Neutralists in all manner of Tenents and Opinions in matters of Religion or that they doubt of every thing and firmly believe nothing If they profess this they are more degenerate from men than the generality of the Heathen They firmly believe that there is one God and that he is good c. yea they are worse than the devils of whom James saith That they believe there is one God and tremble Besides such a Profession as this that men believe nothing in matters of Religion interfeers with it self for he that saith he believes nothing certainly pretends herein to know certainly that all things are doubtful yea and to know certainly that it is best for him to be of this Judgement that all things are uncertain and therefore nothing for him to believe Otherwise Why is he thus minded why doth he not rather submit to the contrary But this last Scepticism is a strain of folly not worth the contending against But to the Reason propounded Sect. 10 by which the seekers of superordinancers do make attempt to justifie their practice in giving over the Ministry of the Gospel I reply Secondly That the Scribes and Pharisees were doubtless every whit as far from being infallible as the Ministers of the Gospel now are yet our Saviour himself Mat. 23.2 3. counselled the people and his own Disciples too to hear them yea and
to do and observe whatsoever they shall teach them to observe Therefore certainly it is lawful yea and more than lawful expedient and necessary to attend upon the Ministry of men that are fallible if there be no other bar in the way but their being fallible especially if there be no opportunity to attend upon men that be infallible whilest they keep within the compass of Moses Chair that is that they open unto us the mind of God in Moses Law Thirdly When Christ admonished the people Luke 8.18 To take heed how or what they heard And the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 5.21 To try or prove all things and to hold fast that which is good Both the one and the other clearly implied that it is lawful yea and necessary too to hear such men who are obnoxious unto error and mistake otherwise what need was there for men to take heed what it was they should hear meaning that they should narrowly consider whether it was Error or whether it was truth if they who were to teach them were infallible If Christ had been of their minds with whom we have to do he would rather have admonished the people to take heed they heard not at all than as he doth to take heed what they heard Nor would the Apostle have advised the Thessalonians to prove all things and hold fast that which is Good if he had not presumed that they should or were to hear men that were fallible and who might possibly deliver unto them some things that were not meet to be received Fourthly Though it be supposed that the Apostles themselves were infallible yet other Pastors and Teachers in those times were not such yet the chief of chose who were infallible the Apostles but Paul and Peter advised those Christians with whom they had to do to honour and obey those Teachers 1 Thes 5.12 13. And we beseech you Brethren know them which labour amongst you and are over you in the Lord c. And so Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls 1 Tim. 5.17 Let the Elders that rule well be had in double honour c. And so Peter chargeth the Pastors to feed the Flock of God amongst them and consequently enjoyns the Flock to depend upon them for their food Fifthly Neither was Timothy to whom Paul writeth two Epistles infallible and there is the same consideration of Titus yet he tells him That by taking heed to himself and to his Doctrine and continuing in them he should not only save himself but them also that heard him 1 Tim. 4.16 meaning that partly by the exemplariness of his life partly also by his care and diligence in teaching he should be an Instrument in the hand of God to save those that should attend upon his Ministry By the way in saying he should save those that heard him he plainly implieth that they that did not hear him having opportunity to do it nor yet any other of like Function and Ministry with him were not like to be saved That he was not infallible appears First by that Item and Admonition the Apostle gives unto him in the place now mentioned viz. To take heed to his Doctrine as well as to himself To take heed unto a mans Doctrine at least imports that a man very possibly may build Wood Hay and Stubble instead of Silver Gold and Precious Stones yea that without narrowly examining and weighing what he doth teach he is very apt to do it so that this clearly supposeth that Timothy was in danger of miscarrying So again secondly When he admonisheth him to remember 2 Tim. 2.8 That Jesus Christ of the Seed of David was raised from the dead according to his Gospel he clearly implieth that he was far from being infallible and that Exhorration likewise unto him to hold fast the form of sound words which he had heard from him is of like import So that evident it is that Ministers or men who are not infallible may notwithstanding be a rich blessing unto those that shall hear them and accommodate them at no lower rate than with Salvation it self Sixthly When the Apostle both in his former Epistle to Timothy Cha. 3. and so again in his Epistle to Titus Chap. 1. describes and prescribes certain Characters and Properties that ought to be minded and found in those who were meet to be chosen in the places of Pastors and Teachers amongst them all he doth not mention infallibility Indeed he requires in such persons that they should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to teach or of a teaching faculty 1 Tim. 3.2 And again that they should be able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers Tit. 1.9 And thus he that is not infallible may be able to teach but infallibility is not required Seventhly Sect. 11 How far and in what respect the Apostles themselves were infallible is worthy of consideration Certain it is that their infallibility I mean in the actings of it and in those Services which by means hereof they were in a capacity to perform unto the World did depend upon their care and circumspection so that notwithstanding that gift of infallibility which was given unto and vested in them in case they were at any time incogitant or less attentive to the motions and teachings of the Holy Ghost within them they might deviate and swerve from the truth As we see in the case of Peter himself the great Apostle of the Circumcision i.e. the Jews when Paul saith He withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed or condemned in that act of his in withdrawing himself from the Gentiles and communion with them to gratifie and please the Jews The Apostle calls it A not walking uprightly or with a streight foot according to the truth of the Gospel i. e. either as the Gospel truly or aright understood required of him and Barnabas or rather as the truth of the Gospel for its own advantage and propagation in the World required of them so though this Error in Peter was not formally and directly a miscarriage in Doctrine yet interpretatively and equivalently it was for it was a kind of implicite and constructive teaching of men that the Partition Wall between the Jews and the Gentiles was not broken down and that the Mâ—saical Ceremonies were yet in force and consequently the Messiah was not yet come or however had not yet suffered which are all errors and this of very ill consequence So that we see the Apostles themselves as infallible as they were yet without a serious close and conscientious minding of what they had received from the Holy Ghost might mistake And truly Ministers of the Gospel in these daies by such an engagement of themselves as this is I mean by a diligent and consciencious attending unto what the Holy Ghost hath delivered unto them in the Scriptures may in their Doctrines and
and so to arm their Judgments and Consciences against them This was the reason doubtless why none of the Cities in which Christ had wrought most of his Miracles and mighty Works were drawn to repentance hereby And so likewise why so few of the Scribes and Pharisees believed in him notwithstanding so many Miracles wrought before their eyes it was the marvelous averseness both to his Doctrine and Person that quickly took off their minds and thoughts from such things whether words or works which they found medling or dealing with their Consciences that way I mean which they found in any degree enclining them to believe on him so that these means could not have their perfect work upòn their souls For whether words or works they must be kept for some time upon the mind and intellectual faculties of the soul before they can accomplish any transmutation or change there It is a common Maxime in Philosophy that no motion is effected or brought to pass in an instant There must be time for the strongest Physick to work for there is some averseness in the body against it So before there can be any such repentance and believing in the soul the means by which this must be effected must have some time to work upon the understanding and therefore if they be thrown by so soon as they begin to work the blessed change will never succeed or take place Or else because there are lying and false Miracles as well as true and very strange things are sometimes done by Magick Sorcery and by the help of Devils and the like therefore they satisfie themelves with a like conceit that the great works of Christ were of this bastard kind of Miracles and so maintained and hardned themselves in their Unbelief all his great Works and Miracles notwithstanding And I remember it was the opinion of one of the Ancient Fathers that Judas thought that his Lord and Master wrought all his great Cures and Works only by the Art of Magick and the Jews have such a conceipt of him at this day So then Miracles if the Ministers of the Gospel in these daies had the gift of them might possibly little accommodate the men who under a pretense it is to be feared so impatiently call for them Secondly Sect. 15 It argueth men and women to be of a very unworthy frame of heart and much estranged in mind and spirit from God and from the things appertaining unto him to require or stand in need of Miracles for their Conviction and Conversion to the Faith This is evident from that of our Saviour Joh. 4.48 Except ye see Signs and Wonders ye will not believe It is evident that these words are objurgatory striking at such a spirit or frame of heart in the persons to whom they were spoken Except yet see signs c. As if he had said ye Jews are of such an ill spirit and frame of heart that such means which are in themselves sufficient to perswade or bring men to believe sufficient to prevail in this kind with persons of any tolerable disposition Godward as such heavenly and authoritative teachings from holy and worthy men are these will do no execution will not convince you but you must have such means used and applied to work upon you to do you any good which are sufficient to break the Iron sinews of the most prophane stiff-necked and obdurate Infidel under heaven you must see Signs yea Wonders or Prodigies of Signs Men that are in any degree ingenuous and willing to walk up to these lower and more common principles of truth which are by nature planted in them or desirous in the least to understand and submit to the truth they stand in no need of Signs and Wonders to satisfie and convince them of the truth I mean of the truth of a more spiritual and sublime nature but only of a lightsome and rational discovery of such truth As the wood that is dry will readily take the fire and burn only by putting coals of fire to it whereas that which is green requireth much puffing and blowing and many times will not burn at last though all this means he used to it Therefore the persons that must have Miracles and say they cannot edifie they cannot profit by the Ministers of the Gospel in these daies because they cannot work Miracles their own tongues fall upon them as Davids Expression is by such sayings they plainly declare themselves to be persons much estranged from God to bear little love to the truth Our Saviour in the Gospel calleth the Scribes and Pharisees Mat. 12.39 16.4 An evil and adulterous Generation for seeking after a Sign or Miracle for their satisfaction about the truth of his Doctrine having occasion to speak upon the same account unto the generality of people He leaves out the word Adulterous only styling them Luke 11.29 An evil Generation for seeking after a sign Why doth our Saviour call the Scribes and Pharisees and so the Sadduces not simply an evil but an adulterous Generation also upon occasion of their seeking after a Sign We know an adulterous disposition imports the departure and estrangedness of heart and affection from the person whom we ought by reason of our Conjugal Engagement to love and affect above all others together with the bestowing of them upon some other person whom we ought not to affect in any such way Now then our Saviour calling the Scribes and Pharisees an Adulterous Generation chargeth them that their hearts and souls were wickedly and basely alienated and estranged from God unto whom they were married by Covenant and should have cleaved with their whole heart and soul and have been of one heart and spirit with him whereas now they had coupled themselves with this present World with the honours riches and pleasures thereof and thereby they did plainly bewray their nakedness in this kind in that the voice and word of God which should have been familiar unto them as the voice of a Husband should be to a Wife which they should have known without any Dispute or Argument to make them know it was become so strange unto them that they were as far to seek whether it was his Word or no as they who never knew him nor scarce had heard of him and that they required as much satisfaction to be assured thereof as might serve to satisfie the greatest stranger under heaven So that they who call for Miracles upon the account mentioned declare themselves to be of the race of the Scribes and Pharisees who are an adulterous Generation Thirdly and lastly The holy and exemplary lives Sect. 16 and righteous conversations of the Ministers of the Gospel where persons have time and opportunity to observe and know them are as authoritative and mighty to convince men of the truth of the Doctrines they teach as Miracles themselves would be 2 Tim. 3.14 Acts 28.31 And as we lately heard that our Saviour severely taxed those that would
their souls is effectually declared and held forth and betake themselves unto that which will feed their fansies with vain and windy speculations and conceipts and let their Lusts be quiet and not disturbe them The great Apostle Paul Prophesyed long ago 2 Tim. 4.2 3 4. where having most solemnly charged and adjured Timothy before God and the Lord Jesus Christ reminding him that it was he that should judge both the quick and the dead at his appearing and Kingdom That he preach the Word that he be instant in season and out of season that he rebuke reprove exhort with all long suffering and Doctrine He subjoyneth this as his reason why he did thus deeply adjure and importune him to lay about him in the work of the Ministry For saith he the time will come when they i e. men and women will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own or according to their proper or private Lusts shall heap to themselves Teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto Fables the time will come that they will not endure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doctrine that is healthful and sound i. e. such a Ministry which is likely and proper to keep them spiritually healthful and sound free from lusts and from sinful dispositions and desires from erronious and fond conceipts and imaginations which do corrupt and endanger the spiritual constitution and frame of the soul as well as lusts and inordinate desires themselves do Such a Ministery as this saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they will not bear or endure it will be after a time irksome wearisome and burthensome unto them as a burthen is to a tender or crazie shoulder when it hath lain upon it long and been carried any considerable way he that beareth it will as soon as he can ease himself of it Now the persons of whom he thus Prophesyeth that the time would come that they would not endure wholsome Doctrine are not only the Professours of Christianity in that Generation wherein he wrote this but he speaketh here of a sad distemper which he knew would be incident to Professours in succeeding Ages also For there is no reason that Christians or Professours of the Gospel in Paul's time should be worse or weaker at this turn more apt I mean in time to grow weary and impatient of sound Doctrine and to heap up Teachers according to their own humours and lusts than in after Generations Nay of the two it is more like that Professours generally in his time should be less obnoxious or exposed unto danger in this kind than in after Ages because the Ministry of the Gospel now reigned in greater power and glory than afterwards and so was more efficacious and likely to engage men and women unto it and to the love of the truth delivered and asserted in it with constancy and perseverance Therefore if Professours under this Ministry were like to miscarry and expose themselves to ruine in such a way as we speak of much more now The reason why Professours of Religion Sect. 4 after they have lived some considerable time under a Ministry able and faithful and sound are notwithstanding in time apt to withdraw from this Ministry I mean from this species or kind of it by what person or persons soever it be exercised and betake themselves to a Ministry of another kind which standeth in airy Notions and windy Speculations in uncouth and unheard-of Strains whether of Phrase or Doctrine or both c. the reason I say or reasons why men and women are apt to exchange Ministry for Ministry in this kind are or probably may be these First The nature of man especially when it falls in conjunction with opportunity and time apt either to awaken or feed such a disposition or humour is apt to be tempted with curiosity I do not say that in such a conjunction it is alwaies overcome with this sinful vanity no nor yet that it is actually so much as tempted by it but this I say That in such a conjunction of Circumstances as I speak of it is apt or obnoxious to be thus tempted and by means of the temptation to be overcome Now that which is incident to the nature a man in such or such cases though it be not found in all men whose case is so or so yet it is very like to be found in many and this is that which we now assign for a reason why many Professours who have for a time and this it may be with approbation and delight sate under a fruitful and worthy Ministry yet may grow after a while out of love and liking of this Ministry when a Ministry of another kind which vaunteth things above what is written and which haply hath as the Apostle speaks in a like case a shew of wisdom in it and no more cometh in their way Curiosity is such a distemper in the heart or soul of a man or women which disposeth it to linger and lust after things that are rare and which we know are enjoyed but by few and withal are unnecessary and yield no benefit unto those that know and enjoy them but rather are prejudicial and hurtful unto them for if the knowledge and enjoyment of things be really necessary and profitable all things considered the desire of knowing or enjoying them is no waies sinful and consequently not favouring of Curiosity but regular and approved by God But when men and women in matters of Religion and things appertaining to God shall by degrees decline and wither in their affections towards the hearing of such things which are wholsome and sound and edifying in faith and love and shall affect a knowing of spiritual things higher and more mysterious and secret than those which are written and communicated by God unto the World in and by the Scriptures and shall delight in the discourses of such men who as the Apostle describeth them Col. 2.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intruding themselves into those things they had not seen i. e. boldly thrusting themselves forward to teach and affirm such things of the truth and certainty whereof they have no substantial ground or bottom this savours strongly of that sinful distemper of the soul which we call Curiosity Secondly Sect. 5 Another reason of that sad miscarriage we speak of in Professors may be an affectation of novelty or of change When men and women have for any considerable space of time been acquainted with or accustomed unto things or persons though never so profitable and worthy yea and pleasing and contentful unto them at the first their affections after a while are apt to wear flat and dull to abate and lose their first vigour and strength in which case they are under a temptation to seek new Objects and this Temptation nor being rejected nor resisted as it ought to be prevaileth over many Thus Christ challengeth the Jews as rejoycing Joh. 5.35
heaven in the World to propagate the Gospel is like an Housholder which bringeth forth out of his Treasury or place of store for his Provisions viz. for the furnishing of his Table upon all occasions and for the entertainment of those that come to it things both new and old i.e. meats that have been formerly dished and made ready and kept in store together with other made ready upon the present occasion But how or wherein doth the Scribe or Teacher spoken of who is accomplished for the work of the Gospel resemble the Housholder here described by bringing out of his Treasury things both new and old Our Saviour's meaning I conceive to be this that it is required in a worthy and well accomplished Minister of the Gospel that he be able to bring forth or to discover unto the People new things new truths I do not mean simply new for so there is no truth new but new unto them or new unto the Age and Times wherein he liveth and not only to do this to bring forth new provisions of truth but old things or old truths also i.e. such as they have already received and believed to insist upon these also and that for this end and purpose that he may cause the people to understand and see that the new truths which he brings and holds forth unto them correspond with their old with what they know and believe already and have in them no repugnancy or contrariety unto those but are rather arguitively or consequentially contained or comprehended in them for this properly is to edifie or build up the frequent Metaphor by which the Holy Ghost expresseth the growth or encrcase of men and women in spiritual and saving knowledge To build up I say properly imports a carrying on or carrying up that part of the edifice or house which is wrought or built alâ—eady towards the compleating of it by adding or laying on according to Art more materials fit for the building In like manner spiritual edification doth not properly stand in a Ministers simple delivering new things though truths unto a people or in their receiving or understanding them But in a rational and clear connecting and close joynting of these new truths with the old formerly laid in their Judgments so that people may perfectly and satisfyingly perceive the perfect harmony and consent between what they hear anew and what they have been grounded upon before So that that which is newly added unto them may not stand off from or stand awry by the former part of their building but every way correspond with it yea be supported and maintained by it When a house is part built and part unbuilt which is the case of all Christians in this life to throw down an heap of new brick or stones or pieces of timber though never so fit for building by the sides of the Wall that is a building is not to build or carry on the building of the house but a regular disposing of these unto and upon that which is already built that so they may be incorporated together and one receive strength and firmness from the other this is in order towards the compleating of the building In like manner for a Minister or Teacher only to teach new matter to a people though it be nothing but truth and to neglect their old things I mean not to shew them and to make them see and understand the perfect coherence of this new matter with and dependence upon what they know already and firmly believe is not the part of a Scribe instructed for the Kingdom of Heaven nor properly to edifie men in their most holy Faith The truth is that they that have but a little knowledge and actually understand or apprehend only a few Principles of truth and these of the easiest and plainest kind have yet virtually and as contained in these a great variety and excellency of knowledge and it is a special part of the work of a Ministry by the light of the Scriptures to unfold these Principles unto men and to make them see how that all that God requireth of them in his Word either to do or to believe was written though with a small Character and this much defaced and so hardly legible without help in the Tables of their own hearts and consciences But this only by the way The thing we drive at is to make known unto you that that Generation of men now under reproof for forsaking the Ministry where it is solid and fruitful for such a Ministry which fetcheth all the Notions and Doctrines of it from terra incognita From beyond or above the Scriptures under a pretense that the former Ministry is low and they cannot edifie by it they I say plainly shew by this pretense that they do not know what belongs to true and solid edification This doth not consist as we have shewed in having new things taught us much less such new things which are empty Speculations and have no substance or weight of truth in them but in having new things so taught us that their agreement and good accord with our old things being truths may be evidenced unto us in which respect our old things must be insisted upon and made use of more or less in order to our edification Several instances are near at hand and might readily be given if I judged it needful that God is just infinitely just that he is infinitely gracious merciful wise powerful faithful c. are I suppose old things with us that we have oft heard preached unto us and few I presume there are amongst us but believe them Now that Ministry that shall edifie us must not teach us things inconsistent with or opposite unto these or any of these but such which have a rational and kindly sympathy and agreement with these and their fellows Moreover he that will edifie a people must not only teach things that are consequential unto these but he must also make it evident unto them how they are consistent and how they do correspond with their old truths Whosoever doth thus may be said truly and properly to build up men and women As the laying on brick or timber upon that which is already built is properly to build up Even so when persons are shewn and it is made evident unto them that these new truths are no other than what they have already received and what they have already believed when they can reduce them though never so spiritual to those old things and see how consistent these are with them then are these persons properly said to be edified For my Brethren this is most certain that even in those old things viz. that God is Merciful Gracious and Good and Just c. are all high Notions contained as in the bowels of them and that Ministry is most edifying that can draw out things that are most mysterious and that are most heavenly and yet can draw them out so as that the hearers may
see and perceive upon the minding and narrow considerations of them that surely these things are so and so because they have so clear and happy a consistency with those things which they do believe already But what may be the Reason why the men and women we speak of Sect. 10 should think they edifie by such a kind of Ministry as their hearts are now lift up unto and could not edifie by the other which they did forsake I reply First The reason why they think they edifie by their new Ministry is either because they meet with new and strange terms uncouth phrases and expressions which they had not learned or heard of before or else for want of skill but chiefly for want of will care and desire to compare the substance of the matter which is delivered unto them in such new and strange Phrases and antique kind of Language with what they had learned before they conceive that behold now all things are become new now we are enlightned now we see and understand things that never entred into our thoughts or minds before whereas the truth is the matter that many times lieth under these new and uncouth Phrases and Expressions is but one and the self-same thing with that which they did understand and know before and they themselves might discover as much if they did but weigh and compare the words and phrases and what is imported in them As for instance the plain Doctrine of Mortification and Self-denial it is very strange to hear how and in what kind of habit they do adorn these Doctrines which are plain and wholsome and sound They put them into a new kind of expression that was not seen nor heard of before nor declared by those Ministers who are sound and sincere in their teaching of the Gospel It is in this case only as if a man should meet an old friend of his with a new Suite on his back of an antique and uncouth fashion which he was never seen or known to be in before in such a case as this one would think him to be a new man and some stranger So these men if they have but their old matter put into a new garbe of expression they are pleased and think they have heard excellent Notions and such things as they never did hear before The second Reason hereof seemeth to be this because they received distaste and dislike upon the account formerly mentioned namely that this Ministry is not for their turn it will not serve their lusts and the waies wherein they desire to walk Now upon such an occasion as this is beginning to conceive a distaste thenceforth they do gather from day to day and from time to time all matters which have any colour of dislike in them and if they can put any unworthy sense and interpretation upon any Passage or Doctrine that is delivered by such Teachers all this is put to that account namely to strengthen their own hands and hearts to forsake them and to quit themselves of them as it is with a side of a house which begins to settle all the weight of the house cometh that way So if the credit or authority of a Ministry do but begin a little to fall in the minds of men then all the weight of their infirmities who manage it or any thing in them that can be conceived to look like weakness or miscarriage will be laid upon it and so in a short time men will work themselves to a perfect liberty and thoughts will be made that this is not a Ministry for them and that their soul is not like to prosper under it and therefore they will seek where it may be better with them Again Sect. 11 Whereas the persons under reproof frequently charge that kind of Ministry which they forsake with being a legal Ministry I reply That I verily believe that they who thus pretend either know not or consider not what they speak herein for I would gladly know of them what they mean by a legal Ministry Is not their sense and notion of a legal Ministry this viz. to be frequent and zealous in pressing men to keep the Law to obey the Will and Commands of God and to threaten with wrath and the vengeance of hell fire the Children of disobedience and those that shall walk after the flesh and to promise the love and favour of God to the exact observers of his Law But if such a Ministry as this be legal what Ministry can be more legal than that exercised by the Lord Christ himself and his greatest Apostles both Peter and Paul c What Minister did ever press holiness or the duties required of men in the Law more strictly more zealously with greater authority and power than he Whoever threatned Transgressors with greater severity and dread than he in that most excellent discourse a Sermon of his as it is called upon the Mount Mat. 5. How doth he all along command and press the observation of the Law and the things contained in it The eight Beatitudes as they are commonly called what are they but a pressing by motives of weight certain duties contained in the Law As blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are the merciful c. Now all these are express duties contained in the Law and yet we see our Saviour commends them unto his Hearers by the great motives of blessedness which shall attend those who shall perform them And in ver 17. and many passages of that Chapter we find that the Lord Christ is very full and high in calling upon men for the duties of the Law Think not that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil meaning in his own Person first and then to fulfill them likewise by his Doctrine and by the charge which he would leave with his Apostles and by them derive to all his Ministers and Agents to the worlds end So in ver 19. Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least of these Commandments and shall teach men so to do he shall be accounted least in the Kingdom of Heaven But towards the end and conclusion of this Sermon Chap. 7.21 see with what mighty authority and force doth he impose upon men the keeping of the Law Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in heaven which holy and perfect will of God is comprehended and laid down in the Law ver 22. Many will say unto me in that day Lord have we not Prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils c. Yet saith he ver 23. I will profess unto them I never knew them depart from me ye that work iniquity So that from this and many such like Passages it is evident that the Lord Jesus Christ was a great Exacter and Perswader a constant Urger and Presser
when he saith he that soweth plentifully shall reap plentifully it must needs be understood comparatively in respect of him that soweth sparingly So then evident it is such a procedure of God with men as the Objection supposeth obscureth the name and glory of God in the eyes of the World Only there is one thing which we ought to be somewhat tender of Sect. 18 namely how to understand all the Promises and Declarations which God hath made in this case of what he intends and purposeth to do with men whether to understand them as engagements absolutely and universally upon him to the observation of which he is alwaies engaged or rather whether they be only to be understood and taken as a course which he intends to follow ordinarily and for the most part and in standing cases and that he doth rather declare what he would have men expect what is fit and meet for them to look for at his hand in reference to their Services than what he would absolutely and universally bind himself to do For doubâ—less as it is in humane Laws and so in Promises â—hat are of the greatest moment and consequence for the benefit and good of the State and Common-wealth unto which they relate such cases may fall out wherein the Letter of the Law is better to be waved and declined than râ—gedly to be observed and insisted upon and yet this is no prejudice to the goodness of the Law that it will not serve the tâ—rn in all cases because it is a Rule amongst Politicians and Wise men that Laws are not made for all cases whatsoever that may occur but only for ordinary and standing cases and such which most frequently fall out amongst men So this possibly may be no disparagement at all to God nor no ground of causing any disrepute upon him or dishonour that he doth sometimes step aside from some of his Promises and Declarations which he hath made in this kind if the Circumstances under which he doth it will bear it and do in an equitable and rationable way require it at his hand There is a time saith Solomon Eccl. 2.5 to gather stones and a time to cust them abroad now it may be there may be ten times the proportion of the time to gather stones of what there may be of that time which is seasonable for the throwing them abroad yet it doth not follow but that it may be as fit that stones be thrown away as gathered together So there may be such cases I suppose it will be hard to determine the contrary but that there may be such cases wherein God may refuse to go by his own Declarations and Expressions in this kind and that without being liable to any change or blot or blemish as if that God should suffer his truth to fail or that he should go contrary to his Word It is true when the Apostle saith of him he is a God that cannot lie it doth not therefore follow that he doth alwaies literally perform what he saith because that is not his meaning alwaies so to do we are not so to take his Promise nor is it so to be understood but only of ordinary cases and where there is not some special inducement one or other of greater consequence to cause him to leave it and to walk on the other hand of it Now by all that we have argued upon this Point we may see clearly that as far as we can estimate in like cases God will reward equally those that shall be equal in their service and unequally those who shall be unequal in that sense and that he hath in readiness Crowns of glory of different weight and brightness according as he seeth and beholdeth that men and women do either fall or continue low in their Service or else as they grow and proceed and rise God I say hath Crowns of glory to fit and to answer according to the Rules of his own proportion and equity Rules of his own drawing up and making he hath rewards commensurable to every mans case and to every mans faithfulness and zeal in his Service Concerning that Parable Sect. 19 Mat. 20. a passage of Scripture which seems to cross and thwart this Opinion of variety of Rewards in Heaven They that are contrary minded to us in the Point in hand understand that by the Penny here which is said to be given to the Labourâ—â— respectively is meant Eternal Life and Salvation Others upon a better ground are of a contrary Judgment and do not suppose it necessary that we should so understand it And there are some that are divided in their judgments about it who yet agree in this that Eternal Life and Salvation is not signified by it Touching the Parable I clearly find from the words of Christ which went before in Mat. 19. the last words But many that were last shall be first that the intent of it was only to make good or to declare in an Instance or Type the truth of what the Lord Christ had said that the first should be last And indeed it is the general Scope of the Parable that is to be minded and all particular clauses and carriages in it are not to be applied unto any special thing As it is with many of your Maps there are the Places and the Cities and Distances of them these are only the Scope of the Maps but there are many things by way of Ornament besides to make them pleasant to the eyes So I conceive our Saviour doth frame most of his Parables only with one edge as it were to fit and sute the business which he aims at and which he seeks to convey and stick in the minds and consciences of the Hearers But there are many Passages and Sayings in several Parables which have no special and particular relation unto the main end but only to set off the Parable and to make that as it were more fit for the understanding and pleasant to the apprehension and more convenient to be carried away by the memories of men And so we may conceive that the main scope of the Parable is only this to shew that men who stand upon their terms with a mistaken conceit of themselves and of their Services as the Jews did are out of the way And this our Saviour would teach them by the Parable when he saith they that were hired in the morning early contracted with the Housholder for so much for their days work which is said to be a Peny But for the rest who were called to the work afterward we do not find any Contract or mention made of what the Housholder should give them or what they should demand for what they do but only he tells them in the general what was meet for them should be given them he bids them go and labour and do their work faithfully and that then they should receive accordingly Now when he comes to account with these workmen he begins with those that were