that the word God in such Sayings as these cannot be taken Personally but of necessity must be taken Essentially viz. as signifying the Divine Nature or Essence wherin both Persons Father and Son do partake so that the sense and meaning of this Proposition is That the Father and the Son do subsist or are partakers of the same Divine Nature and Essence which Divine Nature or Essence is sometimes expressed by the word God So again when God is said to be a Spirit as Joh. 4.24 it is not to be taken Personally as if the meaning were either that the Father or the Son or the Spirit were a Spirit for though it be true of every of them that they are Spirits the Father is a Spirit and so the Son is a Spirit yet that our Saviour should here affirm it determinately or particularly of any one of them more than other no sufficient Reason can be given Therefore the meaning of our Saviour saying God is a Spirit must needs be this That the Divine Nature and Essence which is communicated to the Three Persons or wherein the Three Persons subsist and so are Essentially one and the same God that thâ—s Nature and Divine Essence is spiritual immaterial and invisible And yet more plainly Rom. 16.27 where God is termed only wise To God only wise be Glory The word God is to be taken Essentially because if it should be here taken Personally viz. for God the Father which our Adversary conceiveth and contendeth for with might and main affirming That to take God otherwise than Personally is to take him otherwise than he is and to mistake him and that there is no such acceptation of the word God in the Scriptures with the like But I say that in the place now before us To God only wise be Glory the word God must needs be taken essentially and not Personally is evident from hence because otherwise the Apostle must suppose that neither Christ nor the Holy Ghost had any wisdom in them or none considerable but God the Father only which how near or far off it is from Blasphemy I leave to sober men to determine Other places there are without number wherein the word God must needs be taken Essentially But these few produced and insisted on are sufficient for the proof thereof Therefore the distinction of God taken Personally and Essentially is not a distinction unheard of in Scriptures as our Adversarie groundlesly affirmeth unless as we noted before by being unheard of he meaneth in respect of the sound of words not in respect of the truth and substance of the matter neither do they who speak of God according to the sense and import of that distinction Affirm any thing of the unsearchable Nature of God which he hath not first affirmed of himself in the Scriptures and so are free from all the guilt of presumption upon such an account But the Adversary cannot be perswaded himself Sect. 3 nor be willing that others should be perswaded that the Scriptures should own or countenance any such distinction as that of God taken Personally and Essentially and therefore trieth his skill to make us believe that it is disclaimed by reason and accordingly levieth three Arguments or Reasons against it We shall propound them in their order as himself hath drawn them up and give replies unto them one by one First saith he It is impossible for any man if he would but endeavour to conceive the thing and not to delude himself and others with empty terms and words without understanding to distinguish the Person from the Essence of God and not to frame two Beings or things in his mind and consequently two Gods This is his first Reason to which we reply three things 1. Whereas to perswade others into his own Judgment or opinion he would put them upon endeavouring to conceive the thing distinctly to mould frame and fashion in their minds or imaginations the manner how a Divine Person should be distinguished from the Divine Nature or Essence Doth he not put men upon a direct course to make shipwrack of their Christianity and all they believe touching the Gospel and Christ Jesus For whereas there are many things plainly asserted and partly clearly supposed of the main Pillars of that Religion and Worship of God which the Gospel commendeth unto the World the mode or distinct manner whereof cannot be conceived or understood by men if so be men shall reject or deny them upon this account I mean because they cannot distinctly conceive or satisfie their imaginations how they should be they must together with the rejection of these reject all that which is built or hangs upon them which is as hath been said the main Fabrick or body of Christianity As to give an instance Because it is once and again plainly affirmed in the Gospel that a Virgin conceived and brought forth a Child and upon this Conception and Child thus brought forth we know that the whole projection and frame of the Gospel dependeth Yet who is able to conceive in his mind the distinct manner how she should or did Conceive or what the Holy Ghost particularly acted or did in order to enable or make her to Conceive or what she her self likewise did towards or about this Conception For to Conceive as well as bring forth is a Verb Active and importeth the doing of somewhat either per modum naturae or per modum voluntatis or both by her who is said to Conceive But that the whole Transaction between the Holy Ghost and the Virgin about the Conception of the Lord Jesus Christ God blessed for ever was mysterious and secret and the manner of it in respect of particulars purposely veiled by God is plainly enough intimated by the words or Phrases wherein the Holy Ghost himself expresseth the said business by the mouth of the Angel who first brought tidings from Heaven unto the Virgin of this high Favour intended by God towards her The Holy Ghost saith the Angel unto her shall come upon thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the vertue or power of the most High shall overshadow thee Luk. 1.35 Shall overshadow thee i. e. shall secretly and after a manner unknown not fit to be revealed unto men negotiate this great business with thee Now if a man should reason so or speak thus unto us about the Virgins Conception It is impossible for any man if he would but endeavour to conceive the things and not delude both himself and others with empty terms and words without understanding to understand or comprehend how a Virgin should Conceive Should he not attempt to perswade us out of the belief of the Gospel and to abandon our Christianity only upon this account because it requireth us to believe such a thing which we cannot conceive how it was or should be And what doth he less that argueth after the same manner to draw us from believing that a divine Person and the divine Essence can be
a Lottery into which a man may cast his money and yet be far enough from drawing a Prize Thirdly Doctr. 3 Whereas the Apostle layeth it upon them by way of duty to be filled with the Spirit this Doctrine ariseth That neither men nor women can expect I mean upon any sufficient yea or tolerable grounds te be filled with the Spirit of God but by the use of such means as are proper and appointed by God thereunto If the Ephesians had had any reason or ground to have expected this blessed accommodation here spoken of viz. a being filled with the Spirit of God without their endeavours for the obtaining of it it had been impertinent and needless for him to have imposed it upon them by way of duty Fourthly and lastly From the plain express and full import of the Precept or Exhortation we may observe Doctr. 4 That it is the duty of all persons especially of all the Professors of the Gospel or of Christianity to be filled with the Holy Ghost or spirit of God This being the Point that lieth most clear and large in the words read Contenting our selves with the bare mentioning the other three unless something relating unto them shall occasionally fall in in our intended discourse we shall proceed only with it First Sect. 8 for the truth of the Doctrine had we no other proofs for it from the Scriptures but the Text in hand this alone by reason of the evidence and expressness of it were sufficient to carry it But there are other Scriptures also which being well understood and throughly searched into speak and import the same thing as viz. that it is matter of duty lying upon all men especially those who do profess Christianity to be filled with the Spirit Jude v. 19. Sensual not having the Spirit namely of God as is clear from the Character he gives of the persons here spoken of unto the Christians that he writeth unto For what should be the reason why the Apostle taketh this notice of them Namely that whereas they separated themselves from the Congregation of the Saints yet were they sensual not having the Spirit who though they did pretend to a greater degree of light and more familiarity and acquaintance with the Spirit of God than other Christians did yet the Apostle tells those Christians to whom he wrote that they should not believe them because they were sensual only talking and boasting of the Spirit which conceit and confident presumption in them of their having the Spirit was the ground or occasion of their separation and dividing from the Assemblies of other Christians But the truth is saith our Apostle they are sensual not having the Spirit Nay they take a course not to have the Spirit which is by their giving themselves up to sensuality They indeed pretend to the Spirit that so they might the better satisfie themselves and others concerning the liberty which they take in the waies of the flesh such as other Christians did not take bearing themselves and others in hand that they had the warrant for their practice by special revelation And they understood their liberty better than other Christians and that they came to this priviledge by the super-Evangelical Communion which they had with the Spirit of God And yet notwithstanding all these pretences the Apostle positively concludes that these men had not the Spirit clearly implying withal that this was their sin not to have him yea and futther that their not having of him did interess them in the guilt of many other sins That it was sinful in these and is so in all others not to have the Spirit is evident from hence because they might have had and enjoyed him would they but have complied with God in the use of such means as he had vouchsafed unto them for that end And that it was nothing but sin and iniquity committed by them that kept the Spirit of God from them this may be gathered from the testimony of God himself by his Prophet Your iniquities have turned away these things and your sins have withholden good things from you Jer. 5.25 And that the Spirit of God is withheld from none but only from those that do refuse or neglect to ask him of God by prayer is somewhat more than affirmed by Christ in this high assertive Interrogation If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children How much more shall your Father which is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that aske him Luke 11.13 So also Joh. 4.10 compared with Chap. 7.38 39. and Acts 5.32 God is said to give the Holy Ghost to them that obey him So that it was unquestionably sinful in these sensual Separatists in Jude that they had not the Spirit Now then if this was matter of sin in them not to have the Spirit It clearly follows that it was their duty and a thing that they ought to have sought after to possess and invest themselves with him And if it were a matter of duty incumbent upon them simply to have the Spirit to have him in any measure or degree then it followeth by a streight line in reason or by a necessary consequence That it was matter of duty also unto them to have him in the greatest measure and in the highest degree or proportion that they were capable of attaining unto For this is clear in reason that whatsoever is our duty simply to do if the duty or the doing of it will admit of degrees that it may be done more or loss perfectly which is the condition of most duties if not of all then it is our duty to do it in the highest degree and with the greatest perfection If it be our duty to love God simply then certainly to love him to a greater degree yea to the greatest degree of all is our duty also namely to love him with all our hearts Mark 12.30 souls mind and strength So likewise if it be our duty to love our neighbour Then is it our duty also to love him with a pure heart fervently 1 Pet. 1.22 which is the highest pitch or degree of this affection The case is the same in all other duties whatsoever and therefore we ought to endeavour and stir up our selves unto the most perfect manner of performance A duty is more our duty and nearer to the intent of the Precept or Exhortation enjoyning it when performed with much intensness of mind and spirit and when it drinketh up much of the heart and soul of him that performeth it and consequently more acceptable unto God than when it is only simply barely and cursorily performed So that this Scripture doth prove plainly enough the truth of the Doctrine in hand viz. That it is the duty of all Christians to be filled with the Spirit And if any man do fail of this grace of God and become sensual it is because he doth not comport with the Spirit in his motions and applications
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
furnished and endued them with such properties and qualities as now he hath done That so there might be fit resemblances to train and nurture up the Minds Understandings and Reasons of men in the knowledge and apprehension of the mysteries of Christ and the great things of Eternity And I make no question but that God in Nature hath contrived and ordered the matter so with that Creature which we call the Wind that it poseth and troubles all the Philosophers that though they hear the sound of it yet not any one of them can give an account of it what it should be and whence it should come and when once it is up in motion why it should Fall Nay God hath so ordered the original of the wind and things appertaining to it at least to the Vnderstandings of men that they should not be able to give so steady an account of the rising and falling of it as they are to do of the rising and setting of the Sun that so there might be a kind of rising advantage administred unto men to conceive the better of the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God and of his Transactions and manner in doing matters with the Creatures So that now we see the Holy Ghost himself is resembled with the wind and very aptly so may be but the gifts of the Holy Ghost neither are in Scripture nor with any commodiousness of resemblance can be resembled by breathing or by wind therefore by the Holy Ghost in the place in hand cannot be meant the Gifts of the Holy Ghost but the Person of the Holy Ghost himself Again this might be made to appear further by comparing herewith several other places of Scripture by which it is evident that it was the Holy Ghost himself that was to be given unto the Apostles and to be and to abide with them Mar. 13.11 Joh. 14.16 17. So grieve not the Spirit quench not the Spirit Eph. 4.30 1 Thes 5.19 besides other places Now then if Christ said unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost there is no question but they did receive him they I mean all those to whom he thusspake Now if he were a created Angel or meer Creature how could more than one receive him at once Especially how could he be in and remain with many at the same time when these shall be dispersed and scattered up and down the World in Nations and places far distant as the Apostles we know soon after were We never read nor heard of any more than one Holy Ghost as was observed therefore the Argument in hand cannot be put off with common Evasions viz. That the Holy Ghost might be in the Apostles though never so remote at one and the same time by his Deputies or Vicegerents other inferiour Angels under his command or the like For 1. we have no ground in Scripture to conceive any such power given unto one Angel over another as that any one should be at the command or disposal of his Fellows Besides when Christ said to his Disciples Receive ye the Holy Ghost if it be supposed that there is but only one Holy Ghost and certain I am that the Scripture supposeth no more and that this Holy Ghost could be but only in one of them at the precise time of Christ's so speaking unto them which must likewise be supposed if the Holy Ghost be a finite and created Angel then it undeniably follows that though Christ indifferently said to all his Disciples Receive ye the Holy Ghost and indifferently breathed upon them all yet that he gave him unto one only and that the rest had some other Angel given unto them not the Holy Ghost We might likewise reinforce it from the words following touching the power of remitting and retaining sin conferred at the same time upon the Disciples when they received the Holy Ghost from hence I say we might re-assert our former Argument for the Divinity of the Holy Ghost viz. His power to forgive sins For the power of forgiving and retaining sins being given unto the Apostles upon their receiving of the Holy Ghost plainly sheweth that Primarily and Authoritatively it resideth in the Holy Ghost himself and that it was derived unto them only in a Ministerial way and as they were to be acted and guided by him in the administration and exercise of it And if the case were so with the Holy Ghost as our Adversaries conceit it to be viz. The Holy Ghost himself should only have a power by way of Commission from God and ministerially to forgive sins and that he is or must be regulated and bound up in the exercise of this power by his Commission as well as the Disciples were by theirs Then why might not they baptize in their own Names as well as his Besides if the Holy Ghost were Commissionated by God to forgive sins he had no power to give Commission either to the Apostles or any other to transact the same work it being a general and known Rule and this very equitable that he that is Deputed or Commissionated by another having a lawful Authority so to depute to transact any business hath no power to depute or substitute others in his stead for the transacting the business committed unto him Another Scripture or pair of Scriptures evincing the same great Truth with the former that without controversie the Holy Ghost is truly God is Acts 1.16 compared with Acts 4.24 In the former place Peter speakech thus Men and Brethren this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas c. In the latter place the Disciples express themselves thus And when they heard that they life up their voice to God with one accord and said Lord thou art God which hast made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all that in them is Who by the mouth of thy Servant David hast said Why did the Heathen rage c He who in the former place is termed the Holy Ghost is styled in the latter Lord and God who made Heaven and Earth and the Sea c To say that God may be said to speak by the mouth of David because he gave order unto the Holy Ghost to move David so or so to speak is to oppose the direct and clear Letter of the Scripture with a man 's own thoughts and these weak and groundless If it had been said that God by the mediate or intervening motions of the Holy Ghost spake so or so by the mouth of David it had been somewhat colourable for our Adversaries purpose and indeed no more or if there were any such expression to be found in all the Scripture that God spake so or so one thing or other to any person by the mediation of the Holy Ghost this had been somewhat though less than the other But now the constant tenour of the Scripture speaking as to the point in hand being either that God spake or the Lord spake or
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
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
to receive the Spirit But on the other hand those who have the knowledge of him they are in a capacity of receiving him upon the most desirable terms and are capable of making use of him as hath been in effect said unto you In the fourth place you must pray unto God Sect. 5 or unto the Spirit of God for Prayer it self is a means which we are to make use of in order to our being filled with the Spirit We do here mention it as a part of that Method which should be observed by him who is engaged in the drawing in of the Spirit in order to a being acted by him Now then if this be agreeable to the Will of God viz. that men should pray for the gift of the Spirit and that in the lowest measure then there is no question to be made but that Prayer is as profitable means to effect it in the highest in the one as well as the other and that there is no more unlawfulness in the one than in other This then in the fourth place by way of direction how you may engage the Spirit and set him on work within you to perform what you are not like to perform by your own strength without such a presence of him to assist in your work The third and last Question was Sect. 6 In case we be able and shall actually engage the Spirit of God to assist us how the things done by him or by his assistance can be attributed unto us as the Scriptures frequently do or we be looked upon as the doers of them as we must be if ever we be rewarded for them by God To this Question we gave answer in effect formerly when we opened this unto you namely how notwithstanding men do draw in or engage the Spirit to their assistance in spiritual works and services yet they are not to be looked upon as principal Agents and the Spirit as the subordinate Agent Where we explained unto you the Agency or Efficiency of man in such works in respect of which being truly and really such as the Scriptures every where suppose them to be the said Actions and Services may truly and properly be called ours For whatsoever Action a man doth voluntarily and freely consent unto may properly enough be said to be his especially when the Act of his Will and Consent contributes any thing towards the Action Which is clearly the case in hand for whatsoever a man doth by the Spirit or by his assistance is done not only with or by means of the consent of his Will but by the more active desire and application of the Will unto the Spirit for the doing of it as we have heard yea that which is yet more and entituleth a man more clearly unto such Acts as we speak of is the contriving and studying and plotting how they may and ought to be done by the man who doth them If a man did not consider how and by what means to bring in the Spirit to his assistance the great work we speak of would not be done therefore there is no great difficulty in the question only that is to be remembred as we pass from it that they who make the Creature either meerly Passive in such Works or Services or which little easeth the business willing as we say by or from a necessitation they despoile the Creature of all capacity of being rewarded by God for such services and thus whilst they importunely pretend to be the great Magnifiers of the Grace of God they do indeed and in truth reduce it to a morsel of bread as the Scriptures speak and make nothing of it so that in them the Latine Proverb is fulfilled Stultorum gratia ingrata The grace or favour of inconsiderate persons is unacceptable or such as there is no reason why they should be thanked for it But this only by the way If you ask But why should the imploying of the Spirit of God Sect. 7 in such a manner as you have taught us be a means for a Believer to be filled with the Spirit Or how should it conduce any thing towards such a blessed effect as this is I answer That such an imploying of the Spirit as that we have described unto you is a regular use of that great Gift of the Spirit given unto us by God for the Spirit is given of God unto the Saints for this end and purpose viz. that by him and by his assistance they should do all their works which he commandeth them to do I do not say that it is the sole end but that this is one great and material end why the Holy Ghost is given unto men and why he dwelleth in the Saints 1 Cor. 2.12 Now we have received saith the Apostle not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God That is for this end amongst others and for others depending upon this that by his help duly sought and obtained by us we might be able to know and rightly to conceive apprehend and understand and likewise firmly to believe the Gospel i. e. the particular things revealed in the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ and the mind and Counsels of God concerning our salvation which things are said to be given or freely given unto us by God beeause they are there exhibited and lie in a readiness for all men to receive and know that are willing to take the course which God hath prescribed unto them for such an end There is the same consideration of other spiritual Actions and Services as these Mortification Prayer c. The Holy Ghost is given for this end and purpose that by his assistance and strength they may be able to perform these things after a worthy manner and with highest acceptation unto God If so then to answer the gracious intentions of God in giving him which is by imploying him as we have heard This must need be a direct and proper means to abound with him to have an anointing more rich and full of his presence For it is a Principle in Reason and Equity that they who make a regular and worthy use of a less proportion of any good thing intrusted with them or bestowed upon them that these should no other circumstance hindering be intrusted with a greater Upon this Foundation are these and the like Sayings in Scripture built Mat. 13.12 for whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance But whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath So again Luke 16 10. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much Meaning it is meet that such a person who hath approved himself faithful in a less proportion of any good thing committed unto him should upon the account of his approved faithfulness therein be intrusted with more for God as hath been observed upon the like occasion usually walketh
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
truth upon their error whether from the Scriptures or otherwise we have answered at large heretofore For Sathan when he perswadeth any man to be mad he furnisheth him with reasons such as they are to maintain it under the veil of soberness and truth yea never was there any Error in matters appertaining to Christian Religion how senseless uncouth or pernicious soever set on foot but that it pretended Divine Authority for it self and confirmation by the Scriptures so doth the Error we now speak of which saith unto men Despise ye Prophesying never regard the Preaching of the Gospel especially of those that are the Ministers thereof For wherein is it to be esteemed This fond and most destructive Error I say claims acquaintance and confederacy with the Scriptures as if it were a strain of that Wisdom which is revealed from heaven to make men wise unto Salvation whereas indeed and in truth it is as opposite to it as the East is to the West as the Heaven is to the Earth Two Scriptures especially there are which are presumed to countenance that most unchristian and prophane practice The former is Heb. 8.10 11. The latter is 1 Joh. 2.27 Both these places we formerly I remember examined somewhat at large though now some while since and found nothing at all in either of them complying with such a practice but somewhat in both strongly opposing it For this is the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel c. First It is evident that this passage containeth a promise appropriate unto the Nation of the Jews which doth not appertain unto the Gentiles this is evident from these words The house of Israel This is the Covenant I will make with the House of Israel Now though the word Israel put alone may sometimes be found to signifie the whole Church as consisting of Jews and Gentiles who together are called The Israel of God Gal. 6.16 yet the house of Israel is never found but to signifie this Nation and People by themselves and as distinct from others It is needless to cite all the Texts in the Old Testament where the Phrase is used in that appropriate sense we speak of Ezek. 3. only it is used four or five times in this sense viz. 1.4 5 7 17. besides that in the place in hand it is to be understood in that peculiar sense is evident from the Context all along from ver 6 7 c. So that by these words in the passage And they shall not teach every man his Neighbour it is evident that God speaks to this people touching this Covenant with whom he had made the former Covenant which must be the Jews and containeth no promise made unto the Gentiles If it be objected Sect. 6 but when this Promise shall be performed and made good unto the Jews Shall not Believers among the Gentiles partake of it I Reply If by partaking of this Promise be meant receiving benefit and spiritual accommodation by it it may be granted that they shall be made partakers of it viz. in such a sense as the World did partake of the extraordinary gifts of the Apostles these gifts were not formally or in the Letter of them granted unto any but unto the Apostles themselves though thousands did reap benefit or blessings by them In like manner I suppose the words we speak of are to be taken literally and shall literally and according to the preciseness of their signification be made good unto the Jews and that things shall be at that pass amongst this people that no man shall need to teach his Neighbour yet it doth not follow that therefore things shall be at the same pass amongst the Gentiles though it shall be much better for the Gentiles that knowledge shall thus abound among the Jews they shall drink of the over-flowings of their Cup for the Scriptures seem to hold forth such an high Prerogative to the Jewish Nation to be conferred upon them in the latter times which are yet to come viz. That the knowledge of God should so wonderfully abound amongst them that the Nations of the Earth should repair unto them by their Agents and Ministers to learn of them and to receive encrease of light in the things of God from them As the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon to see and learn from him So shall the Nations of the Gentiles repair unto Jerusalem to receive knowledge of God and to encrease in the understanding of the Truth The Scriptures of the Old Testament are full of such Predictions as these wherein such a grace as this is peculiarly intended by God for the first-born Nation that their Mountain shall be lifted up above all the Mountains of the Earth and that all Nations shall repair to them for knowledge Not to insist on many more places at present but leaving them to your own observation in reading only that of Zech. 8.20 21 22. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts it shall yet come to pass that there shall come People and Inhabitants of many Cities and the Inhabitants of one City shall go to another saying Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts I will go also yea many People and strong Nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Lord. It is principally I conceive in respect of that advance in the knowledge of God which the Gentiles shall gain by the Jews when that Day we speak of shall dawn upon them that the Nations shall whet on and stir up one another to go to Jerusalem to enquire So Isa 60.3 The Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising ten men shall take hold out of all Languages of the Nations of the skirt of him that is a Jew saying we will go with you for we have heard that God is with you Zech. 8.23 He was known in Jury other Nations had not the like knowledge of him But this will be also after a more rich and glorious manner He shall put on more beautiful Apparel to visit that Nation of the Jews when the day cometh than ever he was seen and enjoyed by any Nation under heaven before And we know that their receiving and entertainment by God into grace and favour is by the Apostle styled Rom. 11.15 In reference to the Gentiles A Resurrection from the dead and that which somewhat more particularly answereth those words in the Scripture before us which have the most appearance in them for the practice under reproof is that Jer. 31.33 And they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every one his Brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the greatest to the least As to the clearing I say of this Passage it is to be considered that the Scripture doth not Predict that the knowledge of God shall simply or in the general abound amongst the Jews when the time of their
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
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
and Virtue of Temperance Sobriety c. saith that young men are wont to speak of these things to utter them among themselves but they do not believe them In like manner many who are real Atheists in heart and soul may discourse largely that there is a God they may insist upon all those Arguments and Reasons that have been given by learned men for the proof hereof yea they may urge them with a great deal of stress and weight yet it is not necessary to suppose but that they may be in doubt whether they be true or no. The Fool saith David hath said in his heart there is no God Many may say this in their hearts while they are zealously and with a great deal of heat arguing that there is a God It is recorded of one of the Popes that in conference with one of his Cardinals about their great Revenues and Wealth they had gotten he spake thus unto him Quantum nobis profuit haec Christi fabula What a world of Wealth hath this Story or Fable of Christ brought in unto us Now this Pope and so many others may be devout in pressing and urging of the Gospel and many things contained in it and yet all this while have no manner of belief that there is any truth or any reality in the Gospel or in the things that are delivered there Many men have written very learned Commentaries upon many Books of Scripture yet it is not necessary to be supposed that they believe the truth of these things upon which they thus write and make Expositions Men may do the like upon any fabulous Books of the Apocrypha as of Bell and the Dragon they may draw from thence many good Conclusions and Doctrines and yet not believe that there was such a thing I heard not many years since this passage of a Preacher in England that coming to the house of another Minister of his acquaintance he was entreated to Preach for him on the Lord's day he consented and performed the Service very gravely and substantially the subject matter of his Sermon was to prove the Resurrection of the dead he insisted upon and pressed several weighty Reasons and Arguments to prove it Having ended his Sermon the Minister for whom he Preached being present gave him many thanks for his Sermon adding some words testifying his special approbation of it Why replied he that Preached do you believe what I said meaning concerning the Resurrection Believe it said the other what else Being somewhat startled at such a Question Truly said that Preacher for my part I do not Therefore to be able to plead learnedly and with acuteness of Wit or solidity of Understanding for any Truth or Subject doth not necessarily argue or prove that a man knows the truth or certainty of the being of that which he pleadeth for at such a rate Possibly men may be able to bring forth such Arguments which may be able to carry all other mens judgments before them and yet they themselves may be empty all this while of the belief of that whatsoever it is they do assert and prove The Scriptures themselves seem to hold forth a difference between knowing a thing and the believing of it Joh. 10.38 But if I do saith Christ to the Jews the works of my Father meaning the works that his Father had appointed him to do and such which are proper for him only to do though ye believe not me i. e. though you do not as yet think me a person worthy of credit or belief yet believe the works i. e. believe that which the works testifie of me that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him i. e. meaning that ye may have Arguments and Grounds not only which are sufficient to perswade and convince you of my Divinity and upon which you may argue that I am the same dialectically or with probability but by which also you may be actually and de facto perswaded of the truth and certainty hereof so as to believe it that you may know and not only so but that you may believe that you may not only have Arguments and Reasons to be able to discourse of it but that your knowledge may be rich and full of satisfaction in your own souls And so in that heavenly Prayer of his Joh. 17.8 a little before his death speaking of his Disciples For I saith he have given them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me Our Saviour seems to make a difference between these two their knowledge and their belief of him They have known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. meaning they have upon sufficient and true grounds known i. e. apprehended and conceived that I came from thee yea saith he they have done somewhat more than this they have believed that thou hast sent me they have yielded up their hearts souls and consciences to the convincing power of these words which thou gavest me to speak unto them and have according fully believed that thou hast sent me So then that knowledge of God of his Attributes and Counsels which we affirm to be requisite to put you into a condition or capacity of an ample and large Communion with God must be a knowledge not simply of those things which are written in the Scriptures concerning God but a knowledge of the reality truth and certainty of them i. e. that God is really such an One such a Nature Essence and Being in all points as the Scripture representeth him to be that he is full of Mercy and full of Goodnrss c. Now this is that kind of knowledge of which we do affirm that when it is extensive and any whit large it giveth a capacity of the Communion we speak of Again Secondly This was signified unto you that that knowledge of God Sect. 21 of his Nature and Counsels which will advance you to an ample or rich Communion with him must be somewhat comprehensive and include a very considerable number of those things concerning God his Excellencies and Perfections his Counsels and Decrees c. which are declared and imparted unto the World by the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures They must be men in Understanding and not Children that shall be the Sons and Daughters of this high Prerogative we speak of yea they must be able not only to apprehend and conceive aright of the Mind of God in the Scriptures so far as the words in their Grammatical and next-hand sense will carry them but they must be expert to some good degree at least in the Logical sense of such Scriptures also My meaning is they must be able to build workman-like upon the Scriptures they must be able to find out the Will of God to understand and likewise to go along with many Principles and Grounds which the Holy Ghost hath laid down here
these things unto them Indeed there is this difference between beasts having Communion with men and mens having Communion with God As beasts they have no Communion with men in Principles so neither are they capable of any Discourse or Communication or of receiving the light of knowledge from men But it is otherwise with men in respect of the knowledge of God and Communion with him for though they have no knowledge of the things of God at the present yet are they capable of the knowledge of them if they be communicated unto them they can relish them and improve them And so for the fourth particular and last that great interest in God to carry things in Prayer this is such a Priviledge that me thinks every man must acknowledge and grant and cannot find any thing to oppose or object against it but that this must be the effect of an enlargement in Righteousness and this comes by the assistance of the Spirit of God For God makes a great Treasury of his Ear that is only open for persons of greatness and worth it is one of the highest means and greatest encouragement which God hath in his hand to work and draw up the hearts of men on high viz. unto a life excellent in holiness to grant them a rich interest in Heaven to have his car open to do great things for them Now if God should grant all to other persons that are low and of an ordinary conversation God would be divided against himself and should make that common which he hath set apart for great and signal Services For should he grant this great Priviledge to have his Ear open to persons of an ordinary rate or growth in holiness that when they prayed unto him for great things they might obtain them at his hand he would spoil his market for great things For who are they that would strive to out-run their Neighbours in matters appertaining to God if they apprehended that God would give as much interest in himself and in his love unto them that neither labour nor strive to gain it So that there is no question to be made but that this Royal Priviledge also is the natural and appropriate effect and product of an high excellency in Righteousness in the World and consequently shews them that have it to be filled with the Spirit of God Thus we have made good the truth of our Motive last propounded so far as it concerns this present life and the desirableness of it and have shewed and proved that he that is filled with the Spirit of God must needs be invested in and possessed of the four Priviledges mentioned And secondly that he that is possessed of these must needs live upon the most desirable and happy terms that this World can afford We cast in this likewise additionally that this blessedness of life and condition is not to be obtained by any other means but by being filled with the Spirit We now proceed to shew the like concerning the life which is to come Sect. 12 viz. that a being filled with the Spirit in this World is that which will make a mans Crown of glory to flourish on his head and this with the greatest encrease of glory in the World which is to come Only by the way we suppose one thing which I know is doubted of and questioned by some and denied by others but yet is more generally received and questionless is a truth and the Doctrine of the Scriptures themselves viz. That as the state and condition of men differ in this World some live upon better and more comfortable terms than others so shall it also be in the World to come I mean amongst those who shall all be happy and blessed some shall be greater in blessedness than others and higher in glory though it shall be well with them all and they shall all be happy and blessed Now whereas the World to come according to the more general and probable Opinion is twofold First That state of the Saints under the Kingdom of Christ which is yet to come and that condition afterwards when God shall be all in all there is no estate between these two Now take either the one estate or the other they may well be called the World which is to come that is a World which as it is future so the state and condition of it will be much different from the World that now is That which we are about to propound unto you doth relate indefinitely unto them both in all and in every of the several degrees and dispensations of God in them We shall not make any long business to argue and vindicate the truth which we now suppose as the Basis or ground-work of the next part of our discourse partly because we would not make any long digression from the main business in hand partly because as I remember we not very long since did argue the Point at large giving reply both unto such Scriptures and such Arguments which are generally opposed unto the Opinion Therefore we shall at present only take some brief notice how the Scriptures stand enclined in the Point and add a Reason or two for the confirmation of what we shall find the Scriptures hold forth in the case and when we have laid this foundation we shall go forward with the building First For the Scriptures there is a great appearance here yea doubtless more than an appearance too on the behalf of the Notion or Opinion which was lately mentioned All those passages wherein it is declared that God will judge every man according to his works and so reward every man according to his works suppose a difference in rewards unless we shall suppose that which is manifestly untrue viz. that the good works of all those who shall be saved are equal and that none of them have done either more or less nor that they have been more or less serviceable either unto God or men in their Generation but that all have been found alike righteous alike faithful alike zealous for God But supposing that the works of the Saints I mean their works of righteousness are not equal but that some have lifted up their hands higher unto the Commands of God than others then these passages of Scripture clearly suppose that there will be found a variety of rewards between righteous men and righteous men For that such places of Scripture as these are not to be understood only of the kind or general quality of mens works as if the meaning only were that God would reward all those that shall have wrought righteousness and who have done well with eternal life and that he will punish those that have done wickedly and ungodlily with eternal death now though this be a truth yet that this cannot be the meaning is apparent by the Scriptures which speak elsewhere not only of both kinds of works and the different species and kind of rewards and recompenses proper to them but also that
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
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
to propose unto himself and unto his Spirit for his dealing with the world And for exceptions it is a common saying and true that an exception from a general Rule strengthens and confirms the Rule in all particulars not excepted for there is no general Rule as the saying is that hath not some exceptions Now these exceptions that are to be found from the general Rule we speak of are so far from taking it away or making any breach upon it that indeed they give great confirmation and authority unto it By that standing Rule we speak of God doth explain himself to this effect that men should not expect any extraordinary coming of the Holy Ghost upon them but wait for him in his ordinary way And the truth is those standing Laws and Rules of which we have spoken may be the result of the choisest and most excellent wisdom of the Holy Ghost and of God in ordaining them and yet it may be a point of the same wisdom likewise in some cases to act contrary to them There is a time saith the wise man to build and a time to pull down though these be contrary actions yet according to the exigency of differing times and seasons and occasions both may be done with a like wisdom So that the Holy Ghost may ordinarily walk by one rule and yet in extraordinary cases may walk by another Rule and both with uniformity unto his grace and goodness towards the world But it will be still objected That the Holy Ghost doth not move or act by any determinate Law prescribed unto himself no Sect. 17 not in his ordinary proceedings with men For doth he not many times ever and anon shew himself in his might and in the glory of his strength and power in working effectually upon the hearts and consciences of men that have been loose and vain and a long time wicked and prophane In answer hereunto we might commend unto you those particulars which we have formerly delivered upon this account to consider of But in the sixth place we shall add this to the five preceding which we will not stand now to name that persons that have been loose prophane despisers of God and the Gospel c. may on the sudden and at once seem to be truly converted and brought home unto God when that which is wrought in or upon them in this kind is but either that which some call a Sermon-sickness when the Conscience of a man is only troubled or wounded with the dreadful concernment of the things he hears but soon after recovers himself out of this fit and is the same man he was or worse than before As when Paul before Felix was reasoning of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come it is said that Felix trembled Acts 24.25 But this was but like an earthquake under which the earth is much troubled and shaken as if it would be removed out of its place but soon after recovers and returns to its wonted stability Or else the work we speak of suddenly wrought in loose sensual and prophane persons may possibly not vanish and come to nothing and yet not be a real work of Conversion yet doth it not follow that the Holy Ghost should be found therein to recede from his own Law mentioned To him that hath shall be given because possibly a man may have more in him by way of improvement within the space of one hour and perhaps in a far shorter time than another in the space of several hours yea or years and yet be an Haver too in the sense formerly declared my meaning is this That a man or woman may possibly with a less assistance of the Spirit more effectually provoke and stir up themselves and advance their minds and attentions to the hearing and considering of the Gospel the words of eternal life when they are speaking unto them than another man with a greater measure of assistance of the same Spirit may do within the space of a far longer time and yet be doing somewhat all the while As in matters of a Civil concernment one man with a lesser stock only with more diligence and wisdom may advance his estate more within the space of one year than another with a greater stock being less industrious and provident may do in three and this man may not go backward neither That hath been heretofore signified unto you that the Holy Ghost seldom or never withdraws from any man so low unless it be in the case of the unpardonable sin but that a person may by means of his gracious presence with him if he will provoke and stir up himself accordingly he may consider the things of his eternal peace and act and behave himself accordingly That God is said to open the heart of Lydia Acts 16.14 So that she attended to the things that were spoken by Paul doth not prove that Lydia had a greater presence or assistance of the Spirit of God than any other that were present at the preaching of the Gospel whereby she was converted But only notes the happy event and success which that assistance she had had in and upon her heart like unto which there was none wrought or produced in any other there present by any presence or assistance of the Spirit which they had This is a Principle or Rule according to which many things are spoken and are to be taken and understood in the Scriptures viz. that when one and the same action is raised and produced by a joynt concurrence of two different causes one principal and independent in its efficacy or working the other subordinate and dependent in the acting thereof the effect or work produced between them is sometimes as in good propriety of speech it may be ascribed to the one and sometimes to the other but more commonly to the former that which is the principal So that act of opening Lydia's heart because God was the principal agent in it and cause independent in working it though this was not could not be without Lydia's act in consenting God opened and she opened too for she repented and believed see Rev. 3.20 yet the work is ascribed only unto God But this by the way Seventhly Sect. 18 and lastly When there is any such example in reality and truth as the objection mentioneth viz. a person on the sudden converted and brought home unto God which hath formerly been loose vain and prophane there may be somewhat more than an ordinary presence of the Holy Ghost in and about the work without any declining of that Law or Rule before mentioned from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath For it is to be supposed and not at all to be doubted that even he that hath not in our Saviours sense of the word have that hath not any thing upon improvement of his original stock yet may have somewhat commodious and advantageous unto him at this turn upon the account of some other one or
watch their opportunity and sooner or later will break out and shew themselves in the world Or if they should not break out into action yet they will greatly incumber and break the very heart and cut the sinews of the motions and excitations of the Spirit of God in men The motions of the Spirit of God where these inmates are hardly thrive or come to any maturity but will be as the untimely fruit of a woman which never comes to see the Sun There are some actions so necessary to be atchieved for the honour of Christ that this is like to suffer much unless they be performed And these are of such a contrariety to the flesh that unless men be filled with the Spirit of God the flesh will never give way for the performance of them because they have such a desperate antipathy to it and to the works thereof But when a man is full of the Holy Ghost he is now so full of the sense of the goodness of those honourable purposes that are conceived in his soul and of all high atchievements in the service of God which he judgeth will be both for the glory of God the advancement of the Gospel and for the good of mankind as also for his own peace and comfort that there is no place left within him for the flesh to suggest any thing to the contrary either to take him him off from or to retard him in the prosecution thereof He is as full of such occasions and ingagements as these as ever he can hold which keep out the motions and insinuations of the flesh Whereas if there were room for them to interpose it is a thousand to one but they would strangle or stifle all good purposes and resolutions within him You may the better understand what it is to be filled with the Spirit of God Sect. 2 in reference to the matter in hand by considering the contrary namely what it is to be filled with an evil spirit Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lye to the Holy Ghost saith the Apostle to Annanias Acts 5.3 The Apostle supposes that Satan had filled his heart upon this ground because he had reason and grounds in abundance to speak the truth in as much as he saw and knew that Peter was indued with a miraculous and extraordinary presence of the Spirit of God whereby he could discern whether he spake the truth or not but Satan had filled his heart with foolish imaginations and vain conceits about the profit or benefit that he presumed would accrue unto him by his lye that there was no room for the consideration of those grounds and reasons as were before him to speak the truth though these were pregnant and near at hand So on the contrary when a man is so full of the consideration of the high services of God and of purposes and resolutions to quit himself worthily therein that there is no place left in his soul to encertain any contrary thoughts or suggestions that might insnare him and turn him aside now is he full of the Spirit and in a meet frame and posture to lift up his heart and his hands to the great and high Commandments of Jesus Christ It is said Acts 4 8. Then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost said unto them ye Rulers of the people and Elders of Israel c And Acts 13.9 10. Then Paul filled with the Holy Ghost sit his eyes on him viz. Elimas the Sorcerer and said O full of all subtilty and all mischief thou child of the Devil thou enemy of all righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the right waies of the Lord The reason why here is mention made of the Apostles being filled with the Holy Ghost when he was ingaged in such a notable service for Jesus Christ as to reprove a man of that great authority and esteem which Elimas was of amongst them the reason hereof I say was to shew that he was not like to have performed such a work as this had he not been so full of the Spirit of God that there was no room in his heart for any fearful apprehensions nor thoughts of danger or reward to obstruct him herein So elsewhere the Apostle in a Phrase a little differing saith Behold I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem Acts 20.22 To be bound in the Spirit is upon the matter to be filled with the Spirit As a man that is bound hand and foot may be ordered any way he can make no resistance any man may carry him whither he will So saith Paul I go bound in the Spirit or by means of the Spirit He hath brought me into these bonds having filled me with satisfaction touching the excellency of the service that I shall do unto Christ by going to Jerusalem in the face of all those great Enemies I shall there meet with Yet saith he notwithstanding any danger that may befall me I go bound in the Spirit so filled with what the Spirit hath put into my judgment and conscience and soul touching the acceptableness of the service that I can give no audience to any reasons or proposals against it I cannot resist the motion carrying me to it And 2 Cor. 5.13 The same Apostle speaks of being besides themselves For whether we be besides our selves it is unto God or whether we be sober it is for your cause For the love of Christ constraineth us c. Constraineth us namely to both kinds of practices those wherein they should seem unto many to be besides themselves and those also wherein they should seem to be sober wherein he supposeth that there are many turns wherein the honour of Jesus Christ cannot be provided for as it ought but some men must act like unto men besides themselves to make the provision And of all kind of actions and services these are the highest and most spiritual and of the greatest consequence unto the interest of Jesus Christ and his affairs And the truth is that setting a very few persons aside that are more spiritually wise than the common sort of men yea of Christians themselves there are not sufficient witnesses of the worthiness of such actions but Jesus Christ himself because the grounds and reasons by which such actions must be promoted are so high and have so much of God in them that persons of an ordinary understanding have no skill of them they cannot cast it or conceive in their minds but that such a man might have done better might have been wiser and might have kept a good conscience though he had not run such an hazard and exposed himself to such or such a trouble or loss c. Sect. 3 Now it is only the Holy Ghost that can enable men to do that can inlarge their hearts unto such actions and services as those wherein they shall be looked upon as men besides themselves And when the Holy Ghost shall come and fill the heart and display the worthiness and glory of such
recovering my self again from my sins and receiving grace and favour from God restoring me to my former enjoyments I should teach transgressors his way This then is one reason to prove clearly that it lyeth upon every man and woman of us to be great and signal Benefactors to the World First Because we stand bound to believe in Jesus Christ Secondly To make the world know that we do really and indeed thus believe Secondly Sect. 3 There is yet another thing which is of some affinity with the former yet not the same which plainly evinceth the point in hand viz. That every person of mankind man and woman and more especially the Generation of Believers stand bound according to their several capacities means and opportunities to cast liberally into the treasury of the World that which is likely and proper to enrich and bless it This is the keeping the Commandments of Jesus the translating of all his Words of all his Sayings and Precepts into Actions and Practice before the World He that stands bound to do this without all Controversie standeth bound to be a most worthy Benefactor to the World by doing that which is of a most blessed accommodation to it Now that we all stand bound to keep the Commandments of Jesus and not to cast the least of them behind our backs or tread them under our feet is I presume voted long since by all our consciences with a Nemine Contradicente and therefore we shall not stand to prove this Now that the performance of this great and worthy engagement and the quitting our selves in it like men is of a most soveraign import and tendency to bless the World I shall nor need to go far nor make any long work to prove The World may be said to be blessed in two Considerations or in two different degrees First In the things of its present peace Secondly In the things of its future and eternal peace Now That he that diligently and faithfully keepeth the Commandments of Jesus is a worthy Benefactor unto it in both is a truth near at hand and prepared in a manner with its own evidence for every mans understanding and consent First That worthy thing we speak of the obeying Jesus Christ in what he hath commanded is matter of a rich and precious import to bless the World in the things of their present comfort and peace And this in two respects in the general may be made clearly to appear First By shewing that the very Acts themselves of Conformity and Obedience unto the Laws and Commands of Christ are simply and in themselves of a sweet and beneficent nature full of a spirit of goodness and comporting with the present peace and comfort of the World Secondly By shewing that the exemplariness of such Conformity though exhibited and given by one single person or a very few at first may in a short time turn to a very good account for the further accommodation and benefit of the World First The whole Systeme and Body of the Laws of Christ is composed with a most exquisite and clear proportion Sect. 4 to the present benefit and comfort of the World these have a beneficent nature in them they are full of a spirit of goodness insomuch that were they all observed and kept on all hands it would presently turn the Waters of the World into Wine it would change the Earth which is now as a roaring Wilderness into an Eden or Garden of God to the Inhabiters of it Whereas now the prospect of the World as it appeareth in the eyes of God and Angels and Men is as of men taking one another by the throat every man tearing out of anothers bowels or belly to put into their own Upon the supposition mentioned the prospect or face of it would be quite contrary For then the World would seem yea and really be quite another thing Every man would be found what Moses was unto Aaron Exod. 4.16 instead of God unto another There would be no Emulation or Contest between men but only who in giving honour and doing good should go before other Our Saviour Mat. 22 37 38. reduceth the Law of God to these two heads Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul with all thy strength c. And thy Neighbour as thy self Now if these two general Laws were in their due compass and extent observed in the World you would soon have a new Heaven and a new Earth If we could perswade those who have Silver and Gold in abundance to minister with these unto the necessities of the poor and needy and those that have other things though they want these wherewith they may bless the World otherwise to serve the occasions of it accordingly as Peter and John had neither Silver nor Gold Acts 3.6 yet they had wherewith they blessed men at a far better rate than those who had most of these I say if mens hearts were really and truly set within them to promote the welfare and prosperity of mankind with what they have available and conducing in any kind hereunto which is nothing but what the Royal Law of Christ requireth at their hand would not all tears be soon wiped away from the eyes of the world and men on all hands be as those that dream or as if the Kingdom of God had prevented them and come upon them unawares Charge them that be rich in this world that they be not high minded c. 1 Tim. 6.17 If this one Precept of Jesus Christ were but duly and conscienciously practiced and observed from time to time what a mighty change would there be made in the World by the means of it How would the faces shine which now through hunger and cold have gathered blackness How would the voice of joy and health and thanksgiving be heard in those Habitations which are now filled with sighings groanings and lamentations And so there is another Law of Christ which the Apostle calleth his namely Christ's in an especial manner This is to bear one anothers burthens Bear ye one anothers burthens and so fulfil the Law of Christ Gal. 6.2 This also would make a great and happy change and alteration in the World if persons would but bear the burthens one of another But what is it to bear the burthens one of another I answer When we do not make our selves strangers unto men nor draw back our helping hand from them nor refuse to do them any office or service of love because of such and such infirmities as because they are not so discreet or well-advised in some of their waies or doings as they might have been or because either in a Passion or through want of Consideration they have spake unkindly to us or unworthily of us or have acted somewhat to our prejudice in one kind or other or the like But men generally are so far from bearing the burthens of others that they throw them upon their necks and make them bear them
the hard hearts and consciences of sinful and unbelieving men The words of God in the mouths of such men are as Arrows in the hand of a Giant as David speaketh Psal 127.4 they pierce deep and do execution afar off Other men that for matters appertaining unto God are but like the rest of the World and have nothing singular in their lives and conversations though using and uttering the same words with the former are yet but as sounding Brass or tinkling Cymbals in comparison of them Yea when men shall be found or known to be as it were rent and torn or broken in their obedience unto the Gospel alas they know or may know that when they shall preach the Doctrine of Faith Repentance Mortification or the like men will have wherewith to answer all that shall be spoken unto them by such men from their own mouths For who regards words and sayings where actions and works are of a contrary import As he that speaks Contradictions one while affirming one thing and at another time the quite contrary this man edifies no man by such a kind of discourse no man can tell whether he speaketh truth in the former Proposition or whether in the latter and so they go away as if nothing had been spoken they who speak at no better a rare destroying one saying with the other In like manner they whose lives and actions rise up against their teachings or speakings are of kin to those dumb Dogs of which the Scripture speaks Isa 56.10 For what they teach or affirm in words they deny in works and so in effect teach nothing at all The reason why Christ is said to have taught with authority and not as the Scribes and Pharisees is given by some to be this and I conceive it very pertinent viz. because he did what he said and taught and they said and did not So when they that keep the holy Commandment and walk up to the Rule of the Gospel shall teach admonish and instruct they shall do it with power and authority the Conscience and Judgments of men will give them reverence and do homage unto them As it is said of Herod that he feared John knowing that he was a just man and an holy and observed him and when he heard him he did many things Mar. 6.20 And our Saviour taketh notice else-where of his righteousness and holy life as making his Doctrine much more commendable and of force upon the Consciences of men and withal chargeth such persons very high who did not embrace and submit unto his Doctrine John faith he came unto you in a way of righteousness and yet you believed him not Mat. 21.32 as who should say You declared your selves a Generation of Vipers indeed when as having such a man as John come among you a person so innocent and holy that you could lay nothing to his charge yet you reject his Doctrine you believe him not which is contrary to the light of Reason and argues a preposterous and perverse spirit frowardly bent against the Truth So that if men be not of this Generation men of a viperous spirit and desperately set upon their own ruine and destruction it cannot lightly be but the Gospel coming from the mouthes of just and holy men will do great execution upon them and make the powers of sin and darkness to fly before it Thus we have made good that in the Reason given which was supposed being this That every man standeth bound in duty towards God to act the part of a worthy Benefactor unto the World round about him and as far as in him lieth to bless his Generation The other thing which is affirmed in the Reason Sect. 7 was That no man or woman can be in any good or indeed tolerable capacity to discharge this Obligation unless they be filled with the Spirit of God And this we have in part made good already in what was delivered in opening the former Reason There we shewed That men and women will never do any great any singular thing for God and the interest of the Gospel unless they take a regular and due course to be filled with the Spirit There is the same consideration of doing great things for the World Men and women will fall extremely short of their duty herein also and with-hold that from the World which is its due unless they take an effectual course to strengthen their hand and their heart to the work which must be by filling themselves with the Spirit of God For as they who give munificently and like Princes had need be Princes or at least have the the Estate and Revenues of Princes So such men and women who shall cast in any thing considerable into the Treasury of the World to cover the nakedness and feed the hunger and heal the poverty of it had need be full of the Divine Nature and have a special Magazine within them of Faith and Love of Wisdom and Knowledge of Patience and Humility of Mortification and elf-denial and many other heavenly endowments Otherwise they shall never be able to rejoyce over mankind to do it much good nor to sow liberally and plentifully unto it As the Lord Christ had he not been Rich as the Apostle faith 2 Cor. 8.9 the making of himself Poor would not have extended to the making of many Rich so in case that a person hath but a little inward worth in him if he be scanted in true excellency and nobleness of spirit though he should empty and pour out himself to the World the poverty of it is such and the necessity of it so extreme craving and so devouring above measure that such an estate would do little more towards the relief of it than the seven fat Kine in Pharaohs dream did toward the seven that were lean and ill favoured the Text faith when they had devoured them they were not seen upon them but they were as lean and starven and as evil favoured as before the fat had need it seems to have been seven and seven and twenty times seven times fatter than they were to have wrought a Cure upon the leanness and hard-favouredness of the other And as Andrew Simon Peters Brother informed Christ of a Lad that had five barly loaves and two small fishes but viewing the multitude that were to be fed demanded but what are they amongst so many Joh. 6.9 And the truth is without the miraculous interposure of a Divine Power for their multiplication they had been very little indeed amongst the multitude that was to be relieved by them In like manner he that shall diligently consider and compute not so much the numberless multitude of souls or of men and women in the World round about him as the numberless multitude of their spiritual necessities and those very sad and threatning with open mouth eternal ruine and destruction on every side cannot lightly but confess upon the view that he that shall minister unto them with any likelihood
or much Alas working under such a Notion weakeneth the hand and enfeebleth the arm of any man But on the contrary when there are rewards held forth and promised according to that which any man shall lift up his hand unto in working Do more and have more Do more and receive more this raiseth incites and quickens the spirit to its utmost activity Were it so that all should be equal that they that wrought least should have as much from God as they that laboured most such a disposition of things as this must needs be of this tendency namely to debase the Spirit and unnoble the hearts of the Saints themselves to plant the Lebanon of the Church with shrubs instead of Cedars to produce a generation of Dwarf-Christians We see many that pass for Christians and possibly they may be such indeed that study and cast about and enquire as narrowly as they can what is the lowest degree of Faith and obedience under which it is possible for men to be saved because they desire to do as little of the will of God and as much of their own as will any waies stand with the saving of the great Stake of their Souls Whether the minds of such men as these be touched with the evil spirit of that Doctrine which confounds infima cum summis the lowest and highest services together in their reward I know not but certain I am that such a Doctrine as this is of a most clear and manifest tendency to work the hearts and spirits and consciences of men to such a pass For if there be no more for the greatest Servants of God than for those of the least faithfulness of all alas men as we know being apt to be guided or rather hurried on in their way by principles sutable unto their flesh they will presently cast about and reason with themselves after some such manner as this Since it is so that our portion in the World to come is fixed and we cannot add to it nor lay up any more treasure for our selves there than only that which will accrue to us meerly upon our believing therefore we will make our selves as wise for this present World as we can we will treasure up riches and live at ease and take our comforts and contentments freely in the World and go as near the brink of hell and destruction as we can without falling into it And the truth is that the conceit we speak of I mean of an equality of reward is a dangerous snare unto men not simply to beat down as it were the price of their salvation as low as they can and to keep out of the way of all excellency as far as they dare but also never to advance so far in a course of godliness and obedience as whereby or wherein to be saved My Brethren let me say this unto you and consider it well That he that will be intent and wary of doing any thing more than what is simply necessary to Salvation it is ten thousand to one that he will never do so much He is like to shoot short of his mark that is afraid of over-shooting it So he that is loath to do any thing upon a religious account or for Christ or the Gospel without the doing of which he may be saved is in eminent danger of not doing that without the doing of which he shall never be saved Secondly Such a dispensation as that for which we plead excellently commends and sets off unto the World the great love that God bears unto righteousness and well-doing For if he should recompense and reward the less excellent and the more excellent waies of men alike would it not argue that he did not bear any great affection unto holiness or Christian worth at least in their exaltation and where they advance flesh and bloud to the nearest proximity unto the holy Angels Or would it not rather import some such thing as this which is very unworthy of him namely as if he did not care to have men singularly holy or that any man amongst his Saints should be more excellent than another or out-shine him in good works For if he doth so highly approve of and take delight in those that strive to out-run their fellows in the waies of his Commandments why doth he not encourage men of this strain and temper Or why doth he not take a course to propagate such a Generation in the World Or is there any means so natural and proper to do it as to distinguish and sever persons of this honourable Character from those of a more vulgar and ordinary allay by promises of greater and more honourable rewards to be conferred on them As Caleb by that generous promise of giving Achsa his daughter to Wife unto him that should smite Kiriath Sâ—pher and take it sprang valour and courage in the breast of Othniel to undertake the enterprize and perform it with success Josh 15.16 17. In like manner God by raising his Promises higher unto those that shall quit themselves at an high and worthy rate in his service than unto persons that shall move in a more common Sphere of Christianity declareth that he seeketh a Generation of such as will excel in holiness and that he delighteth to be served with Prince-like strains of zeal and faithfulness Yea if God did not regard righteousness and true holiness where they are found in greater perfection more than where he findeth them in less only he could not reasonably be thought to regard them at all For those degrees of the one and of the other which in persons highly qualified with them do super-exceed that measure or degree of them which are found in Christians of a lower pitch and stature are true righteousness and true holiness as well as they Therefore unless it be granted that God regardeth them I mean those super-exceeding degrees of righteousness and holiness of which we speak it cannot in congruity of reason be said that he regardeth them righteousness and holiness at all Thirdly Such a dispensation or disposition as that for which we plead a Collation of Rewards an inequality answering the inequality of the services of men commends that manifoldness of the wisdom of God of which the Scripture speaketh which a contrary dispensation would not do nor afford any opportunity for the doing it For if there be but one and the same degree of glory one and the same reward for all the Saints here is no matter for choiceness of wisdom to shew it self in finding out and setting forth every mans reward in a true and exquisite proportion to his works and labour to his love and faithfulness But now if we shall suppose this to be the case as doubtless it is that God hath an innumerable company of Saints to be rewarded in glory and to receive Crowns of blessedness from him proportionable to the endless variety and difference of their waies and doings in the World Now for him perfectly to
increated Spirit or whether a created Spirit Many of you that are present I suppose know that there is an Antitrinitarian Spirit that hath broken prison of late and gotten abroad amongst as very busie in making Proselytes And as in the daies of Old this Spirit laboured to fill the World with this Doctrine That only one of the Three which John as you heard saith are one viz. He that is known unto us by the name of the Father is truly God And that the other two the Son and the Holy Ghost or the Spirit are but the Father's Creatures receiving though very excellent yet only finite and limited Being from him Wherefore as Moses said unto Aaron Num. 16.46 There is wrath gone out from the Lord the Plague is begun and hereupon wisheth him to go quickly unto the Congregation to make attonement for them Even so the Plague of this most dangerous Errour we speak of being begun amongst us already and several being intangled and insnared by it It therefore concerns those who are in a special manner intrusted with the great concernments both of God and men and upon whose shoulders it lieth more especially to contend for the truth I say it concerns them to lay about them with all wisdom and faithfulness in order to the convincing gainsayers or the Adversaries of this Truth We do not intend at present to speak any thing directly and particularly for the vindication of the God-head of the Second Person The Name by which he is best known unto us is Christ But only to plead the cause of him whom we with the ancient Christians call the Third Person in the Trinity or the Holy Ghost and briefly from the Scriptures to demonstrate him to be an infinite and uncreated Spirit and truly God Amongst very many passages as well in the Old as in the New Testament which with greatest evidence demonstrate the Holy Ghost to be God we shall only insist upon some few which we judge to be most clear and convincing Exod. 4.12 Jehovah translated Lord speaketh thus to Moses Now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say From hence it appears that it is only proper for Jehovah or him that is God to be in the mouth of the Prophets and to teach them what to say Add hereunto that which we have Num. 12.6 And he said hear now my words If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord or I Jehovah will make my self known unto him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream Now most evident it is from hence that he who spake by the Prophets and other Holy men of God as the Apostles was true Jehovah true God And hence it was that when the Prophets were about to deliver any Message to the People in the Name of God they commonly used this Preface Thus saith Jehovah or the word of Jehovah that Jehovah spake unto them or appeared unto them or the like places of this kind are without number in the Writings of the Prophets And the Apostle himself Heb. 1.1 expresly saith That God in times past spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets Now the Lord Christ himself affirmeth That it is the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost that thus speaketh in men Take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father speaketh in you Mat. 10.19 Therefore now if it was God that spake by the Prophets then and is interpreted by Christ to be the Holy Ghost then Jehovah or the Lord in the Old Testament is the Spirit or the Holy Ghost in the New And the Apostle Peter expresly affirmeth that it was the Spirit of Christ that spake in the Prophets 1 Pet. 1.11 And elsewhere he saith that Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 Thus David also a little before his departure The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue The God of Israel said the Rock of Israel spake to me 2 Sam. 23.2 And so Ezek. 2.2 And the Spirit entred into me when he spake unto me So that evident it is from these Scriptures diligently compared and laid together that the Holy Ghost who is from place to place said to have spoke unto the Prophets and Holy men of God was none other but Jehovah God himself Another place may be Lev 19.1 2. where Jehovah is said to have spake unto Moses saying Speak unto all the Congregation of the Children of Israel and say unto them Ye shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy Now he that spake these words unto Moses and ordered all these Ceremonies is in the New Testament said to be the Holy Ghost Heb. 9.8 The Holy Ghost this signifying c. Yet again Lev. 26.12 And I will walk among you and be your God and ye shall be my people compared with 1 Cor. 6.19 2 Cor. 6.16 1 Cor. 3.16 In all these places you shall find that the Saints in their Holy Assemblies are said to be the Temple of God and that God is said to be there and to walk amongst them Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 Cor. 3.16 So again ver 17. For the Temple of God is holy which Temple ye are 1 Cor. 6.19 What know ye not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost c 2 Cor. 6.16 What agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols For ye are the Temple of the living God c. Now these persons you see in whom God is said to dwell are said to be the Temple of the Holy Ghost And that God that dwelleth amongst them is the Holy Ghost Deut. 9.8 Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord so that the Lord was angry with you compared with Isa 63.10 But they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit That which in the former place is termed a provoking the Lord unto wrath so that he was angry Is in the latter by the Evangelical Prophet termed a vexing of his holy Spirit Psal 95.7 8. The Psalm begins thus Come let us rejoyce unto Jehovah And soon after ver 7. To day if ye will hear his voice c. He that contested with and complained of the People in the Wilderness was true Jehovah as appears also from several other Scriptures And they tempted God in the Desart Psal 106.14 and Psal 78.18 Yet the Apostle Heb. 3.7 plainly affirms that it was the Holy Ghost that was tempted wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts c. So that you see by these and many other such like places which might be readily produced if need were that he called Jehovah the Lord of Hosts in the Old Testament is called the Holy Ghost in the New Yet again Isa 6.9 10. The Prophet in the beginning of
which at one and the same time is to be expedited and put in execution in all the four winds of the Heaven in places without number and these very far distant one from another and to provide that the work should be done regularly and effectually in all these places at once must in reason upon a diligent consideration of the business be judged to be greater than any Creature to have an arm far more out stretched than any Angel in Heaven therefore cercainly our Saviours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Comforter here said to be the Holy Ghost must needs be greater than a finite Angel and consequently God himself even the most High God Nor is it pertinent or much to the purpose here to pretend that the business of temptation of tempting men and women unto sin is managed and that very effectually and with too much success all the World over at one and the same time and yet he that presideth in chief over the World is but a finite Creature and is styled in the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tempter Mat. 4.3 1 Thes 3.5 therefore why may not the work of Consolation be managed and carried on all the World over by an Angel or finite Spirit c. To this I answer 1. That there are many tempted and drawn away unto sin who are not tempted of the Devil Let no man saith James say when he is tempted I am tempted by God no let not every man when he is tempted say I am tempted of the Devil For God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man Nor doth the Devil tempt every man especially as oft as he committeth sin But every man i.e. the generality or far greater part of men is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed Jam. 1.13 14. And we know the Devil himself was tempted and drawn away with his own lust and enticed to the greatest impiety whilst yet there was no Tempter much more may men be tempted and drawn away by their own lusts So that the tempting of men all the World over at one and the same time doth not prove that therefore the Devil tempteth all the World over at the same time And the Devil himself confesseth in the Scriptures Job 1.7 that he compasseth the earth two and fre and walketh up and down in it And elsewhere it is said of him that he goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 Therefore the Devil is not present all the World over at the same time doing one thing or other either by himself or by inferiour Devils his subservient instruments But now the Holy Ghost whom our Saviour calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must of necessity be present all the World over where there is any comfort administred because no inferiour Comforter whether men themselves Ministers of God or others whether Angels or men can perform the work with effect or success without the presence and interposure of him that comforteth in chief Paul may plant and Apollo may water but it is God that giveth the encrease So then neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth but God that giveth the encrease 1 Cor. 3.6 7. Neither man nor Angel is any thing i. e. comparatively or able to effect any thing of any Evangelical import without the immediate or actual presence or interposure of God therefore if the Holy Ghost were not God he could not render the Word of God effectual in the hearts of men as to matter of spiritual Consolation and that he should be termed the Comforter and not be able to comfort authoritatively of and by himself or any otherwise than as men commissionated or delegated from God ministerially to comfort is most irrational and no waies worthy to be believed But some that are otherwise minded in the business in hand except against the English Translation for translating the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Comforter when as they should have translated it the Advoeate as they have done 1 Joh. 2.1 I reply 1. That to him that is weak the Grashopper is a burthen and he that is afraid of falling is apt to catch hold of every twig in his way though it hath little or nothing in it to keep him from falling For what will be gained to the adverse cause in case the learning and judgment of the Translators should be made to bow down at the feet of him who thus excepteth And if we should condemn the Comforter to justifie and set up the Advocate will the Advocate plead his cause who stands so much for him with more strength than the Comforter Doubtless not at all For if the Holy Ghost be an Advocate in such a sense of the word Advocate as Christ is which it seems is the sense contended for he must mediate and plead the cause of all the Saints on earth as he doth with God the Father and so must know the estates and conditions of all the Saints on earth respectively and particularly and consequently must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the knower or searcher of the heart Acts 1.24 Chap. 15.8 which is the incommunicable property of God Or if he doth not know the hearts of the Saints perfectly how shall he be able to perform the part of a worthy Advocate He that is a man's Advocate had need understand his cause perfectly Or 2. If he that excepteth against the said Translation would have the Holy Ghost an Advocate in some other sense of the word viz. because he pleads the cause of the Saints at the Tribunal of their own hearts and consciences and informs these Judges I mean the consciences of the Saints respectively such things relating to his Clients upon the account of which they ought to justifie and absolve them or else because he pleads the cause of the truth and innocency of their Christian Profession before the World and the Rulers thereof when they are called before them or questioned by them according to that of our Saviour It is not you that speak but the Holy Ghost that speaketh in you Mar. 10.20 Mar. 13.11 Luke 12.12 namely by way of Apology for the Christian Profession which you make Take I say the word Advocate in either of these significations and I think there is hardly a third imaginable except that of Christ his being an Advocate the Godhead of the Holy Ghost will be every whit as much countenanced and asserted either by the one or by the other applied to him as by being styled the Comforter Yea the truth is that is cannot well be conceived how or in what respect other than in one or both of these the Holy Chost should be called or understood a Comforter Therefore the Exceptor against the said Translation in seeking the change thereof is but like a sick man who conceits if he changes either his Chamber or his Bed he shall be better and find ease whereas the
else that the Holy Ghost spake so or so but never that God by the Holy Ghost spake either so or so it is a plain case that all these Expressions are synonymous and equivalent and that he that is in one place called God in another Lord is the same God and the same Lord with him that in other places is called the Holy Ghost It is indeed said of the Lord Christ in regard that he was man as well as God that he gave Commandments unto his Apostles by the Holy Ghost Acts 1.2 to shew that though he spake unto them in the Humane Nature and as a man yet was directed by the Holy Ghost in what he said But if it should be supposed that the Holy Ghost by whom he is said to give Commands to his Apostles were a Creature or a created Angel it had rathet been a disparagement than any manner of reverence or advantage unto them in this kind that they should be given by him and this according to the Principles of our Adversaries themselves who hold and teach that the Holy Ghost is inferiour howsoever unto Jesus Christ be he man only as they or God and man both as we say Now for one that is superiour in Gifts Wisdom and Understanding c. to be acted or directed in what he speaketh by him that is beneath him in these abilities is rather detractive from the weight and worth of what he so speaketh than any waies adding thereunto Thus we see that the Scripture seldom hath any occasion to mention or speak of the Holy Ghost but there is somewhat or other near at hand which bewrayeth him to be that which indeed he is God blessed for ever We might further argue Sect. 13 and prove the Deity of the Holy Ghost from Acts 5.3 compared with v. 4. 9. But Peter said Ananias why hath Satan filled thy heart to lye to the Holy Ghost and to keep back c. That which he calls Lying to the Holy Ghost in this verse he calls lying unto God in the next Why hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart thou hast not lyed unto men but unto God The Adversary finding himself somewhat hard beset with this passage after his wonted manner casts about and bestirs himself to espy how he may break loose from hence also So hard a thing is it for a man that hath an opinion of his own to establish to submit unto the Word of God though speaking plainly and without Parable One while he cavils at the Translation ver 3. and tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should not be translated to lye to the Holy Ghost but to counterfeit the Holy Ghost I think it not worthy your time to stand upon the exception or to shew the lightness of it especially it having been done substantially already in a discourse published in English upon the Subject we are now upon somewhile since entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or A Treatise of the Holy Ghost p. 3 4 5 6. Only by the way you may please to take notice of this that there is nothing more clear than that the Apostle Peter having charged Ananias ver 3. with suffering Satan to fill his heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether we translate it to lye unto the Holy Ghost or to belye or counterfeit the Holy Ghost interprets his meaning therein ver 4. Thou hast not lyed unto men but unto God For there is no colour or ground to think that here he chargeth him with a new sin And ver 9. he expostulateth with Sapphira his Wife Why have ye agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord Now to speak an untruth unto persons in whom there was so manifest and great a presence of the Holy Ghost as was in Peter and the rest of the Apostles was more properly a tempting him viz. whether he were Omnipotent or no and could tell when or whether men spake untruth or not and again whether he were so severe to discover it in case he knew it c. in these respects I say to lye unto the Holy Ghost is more properly a tempting him than to pretend a motion from the Holy Ghost which was not from him Besides it no waies appears that either Ananias or Sapphira did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our Adversaries sense i.e. counterfeit the Holy Ghost or pretend that what they did in denying they sold their Possession for so much they did it by motion from the Holy Ghost neither is there the least probability of such a thing Besides some Greek Copies have the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the clause contended about reading it thus Why hath Satan filled your heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which cuts off all Pretext against the Translation But the Adversary as one while he pleaseth himself with signifying his displeasure against the Translation so otherwhile he attempts to come off from the said Contexture of Scripture which frowns so terribly upon his opinion by that trivial and common shift viz. That men may be said to lye unto God when they lye unto his Messengers and that upon this Principle because that which is done to an Embassadour or Messenger redounds to him that sent him Therefore that Ananias is said to lye unto God because he lyed unto the Holy Ghost proves no more saith he but only this that the Holy Ghost is the Messenger of God and sent by him not that he is God himself This Fig-leaf also might easily be rent and torn but that it hath been done already by the former hand we spake of For though that which is done to a Messenger Embassadour or the like whether in a way of honour or dishonour may be said to redound or in a general sense and consideration to be done to the King or Prince that sends him yet the particularity of what is done in this kind to a Messenger cannot with truth in custom of speaking be said to be done unto any other but himself It is a common saying that what measure is measured out unto Embassadours it is done unto the Person himself that is the sender of them But now this is to be understood of the general nature of that which is done Be it good or evil which is measured to an Embassadour it doth I say redound in a general way unto the King or Prince that sends him But as for the particularity of discredit which is done to the Embassadour this cannot in reason or in truth be attributed unto the Prince If the Embassadour be killed it cannot be said that the Prince is killed only that he had a very great affront offered unto him So if the Embassadour had a high reward a Chain of Gold or the like it cannot be said that the King had one only that this was done in honour to the King Take an instance or two from the Scriptures Hanun we read 2 Sam. 10.4 shaved off the one half of the beards of David's Messengers
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
by the teaching authorizing or commanding of another really distinct from him that speaketh most certainly cannot be God Secondly A person may be said not to speak of himself the main strength subtilty and fallacy of this Argument lieth in that Phrase of himself viz. when he doth not speak of himself alone or without the co-speaking of another person with him for this you are to know and remember that many times the exclusive Particles only and alone are not expressed in the Scriptures when yet indeed they are to be necessarily understood thus Deut. 6.13 and so again 10.20 where Moses speaks thus unto the people Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him the meaning is Thou shalt serve him only or alone as our Saviour himself citing the place in the New Testament expoundeth it Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only or alone shalt thou serve Mat. 4.10 So Joh. 12.44 He that believeth on me believeth not on me but on him that sent me Believeth not on me i.e. not on me only or alone he hath not only one string to his bow for there is one besides me to support his Faith viz. my Father And our Saviour speaking of the branches of a Vine in that Parable Joh. 15. opposeth this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to that which is wholly from another in one kind or other much less from another differing in nature and substance from the said branch but to the solitariness or sole vertue of the branch being separate from the Vine As the branch cannot bear fruit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it self except it abideth in the Vine ver 4. And in the Application of the Parable ver 5. he expresseth the spiritual notion or thing which answereth it by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which importeth a separation from or exclusion of another I am the Vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because without me i. e. being separated or divided from me through unbelief ye can do nothing Now then in this latter sense of the Phrase speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of himself it is true the Holy Ghost speaks not of himself no more doth God the Father For God the Father speaks not of himself alone without the Son and without the Holy Ghost for both these speak together with him i.e. joyn in the same Action of speaking or of revealing things unto men which I suppose is that kind of speaking which is attributed to the Holy Ghost in Joh. 16.13 which is the grand Scripture wherein our Adversaries put their strength Howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that will he speak As the Lord Christ speaketh Joh. 5.17 My Father worketh hitherto and I work meaning that he and the Father wrought together and hence it is that as the speaking i. e. the revealing of spiritual things is here attributed unto the Holy Ghost so elsewhere it is ascribed unto the Father Mat. 16.17 11.25 Joh. 6.45 And sometimes to the Son Mat. 11.27 Luke 10.22 and frequently to God indefinitely taken i.e. for God the Father Son and Holy Ghost considered as one and the same God Gal. 1.15 Phil. 3.15 and elsewhere so that when Christ for the comforting and strengthening of the Faith of his Disciples telleth them that the Spirit when he cometh shall not speak of himself his meaning is that the Testimony of the Spirit in revealing what he shall reveal unto them shall not be a single Testimony which is less creditable he shall speak and reveal nothing unto them but wherein the Father and himself shall agree We might add for the further clearing of the Phrase of himself that we find in Joh. 11.51 where the Evangelist speaketh concerning the speech of Caiaphas the High Priest that it was expedient that one man should die for the People and not the whole Nation to perish This saith the Holy Ghost here of him spake he not of himself but as being High Priest Now the meaning hereof is not as if that Caiaphas had this saying dictated unto him or as if he were any way authorized or countenanced or had the saying suggested unto him from another or that there was another that did over-rule and guide and govern his lips or his tongue in bringing forth such a saying For the meaning cannot be that he spake it from the Holy Ghost for certainly the Holy Ghost could not be the Author of any such Counsel of putting the Lord of Life to death nor any way encouraging or aiding to such a work as this but yet the Holy Ghost had a hand in the business not in suggesting the Notion or wicked Counsel into the High Priest but he did over-rule and cause his Tongue to issue such words and sayings which having another Principle in his heart it is like if he had been left unto himself he would have brought out some other kind of way and said something which would have tended to the destroying or taking away the life of Christ but that it was brought out in that form of words which had a Prophetical face in them there was some kind of interposure of the Holy Ghost as there is in many Actions and sinful Sayings of men many times their tongues are over-ruled though the substance of what they say is evil yet there are some strains in it which are from a Principle Superiour unto themselves Now I say apply we the distinction of the Phrase speaking not of himself to the Argument and you will readily find the weakness and insufficiency of it And that there are four terms which alwaies make a fallacious Syllogism that is if the same words be taken in one sense in one Proposition and in another sense in the other Proposition this now maketh four terms and so maketh the Syllogism void and inconclusive of any thing So much for this Argument He that speaketh not of himself is not God the Holy Ghost speaketh not of himself therefore he is not God If we take the Phrase speaking not of himself in the latter sense explained so the Major Proposition is false for he may be yea and truly is God who in this sense speaketh not of himself i.e. who speaketh not but in conjunction with others If you take the said words in the former sense so the Major Proposition is true but the Minor is false For the Holy Spirit doth speak of himself in this sense i. e. he speaketh the same thing with the Father and the Son and doth not speak by the motion or direction of any person or being separated from him The fourth Argument is of affinity with the former Sect. 10 and presenteth it self in this form He that heareth from another what he shall speak is not God the Holy Ghost doth so
therefore he is not God This Argument is drawn up in many swelling words after the manner of some of the rest but the sinews and strength of it lyeth in this that the Holy Ghost in the Scripture is said to hear from another that which he speaks or reveals unto men or which he did reveal unto the Apostles and that from hence it follows according to our Saviours supposition Joh. 8.26 compared with ver 28. that he is taught by another and consequently cannot be God The life and soul of this Argument is bound up in this small bundle of words therefore we reply briefly to it First That the very bottom and foundation upon which this Argument standeth is crasie and loose viz. That he that heareth from another what he should speak is taught if by being taught he means the receiving of new knowledge or of the knowledge of things which we knew not of before which he must mean if he means any thing with sense For many may hear from another what they are or ought to speak without being taught in such a sense as when a Jury of men give in a Verdict upon Oath it doth not follow that he that speaks or gives in his Testimony in the second or third place is taught by him that speaks the same thing before him in his hearing for he may speak the same thing out of his own Judgment and Conscience and which he was otherwise resolved to speak though he had not heard it spoken by another before he utters it and so they who spend their time in the study of the Scriptures and in the searching after truth may find that spoken or written which is equivalent to hearing and is hearing in a sense by another which yet falls in with their own thoughts and apprehensions formerly conceived in this case they may be said to hear that from another which they speak and yet not be taught Therefore Secondly Whereas he labours to prove the truth of that assertion from these two passages of the Scriptures Joh. 8.26 28. compared together his labour is in vain for his proof is notoriously defective and weak and this upon a double account For first he takes that for granted which he should have proved as being no waies evident in it self And secondly He supposeth that if it be true in one case that he that heareth from another what he shall speak is taught that therefore it must be true in all cases which is very ridiculous First That which he takes for granted in his proof from these passages is That our Saviour in the latter of the places expoundeth himself in the former or that he speaketh one and the same thing for substance of Notion in them both This I say no way appears nor indeed is much probable For when in the former place he speaks thus But he that sent me is true and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him very probable it is that he speaks of the ineffable and unconceivable hearing whereby all the three Persons hear one another speaking the same things according to that of the same Apostle 1 Joh. 5.7 There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one If they all bear record in Heaven doubtless they hear one another or one from another Or else our Saviour in the words mentioned may be conceived to speak of the Eternal hearing from the Father which is appropriate to him as being his Son by Eternal Generation for the Father communicating one and the same Divine Nature or Essence with himself unto the Son by Eternal Generation must needs communicate all the Divine Attributes and Perfections together with it being indeed but one and the same thing with it and amongst the rest that infinite knowledge and understanding which is proper to it which communication of knowledge may properly enough be termed Christ's hearing of the Father Again When he saith in the latter place Joh. 8.28 he saith According as the Father hath taught me these things I speak He speaks of his teaching or being taught as man or as Mediator in which respect he is elsewhere â—ermed the servant of God and his Father said to be greater than he And consequently he must be inferiour to the Father and so may properly enough be said to be taught by him And that indeed he speaks here of his being taught as man appeareth from the next Verse but that we must not stand to scan all things Thus you see our Adversary in the main proof of his Argument takes that for granted which is not only questionable and uncertain but improbable also in the highest Again Secondly Suppose that which he taketh for granted without proof or probability in the case before us should be granted unto him viz. That our Saviour by hearing of the Father and by being taught by the Father meaneth one and the same thing or explaineth the one by the other yet it no way followeth that therefore all hearing and all teaching should be the same or that every one that heareth of another what he shall speak should be taught by him We gave a sufficient account of this lately it is a weak kind of arguing to reason thus Such and such words or Phrases are to be taken in such and such a sense in this or in that place of Scripture therefore they are to be so taken in all others So that this Argument also is of the same House and Linage with the former only before we dismiss it it may not be unworthy of your observation how strangely God blindeth the eyes of him that composed the Argument when towards the beginning of it to prove that the Holy Spirit is taught and heareth from another what he shall speak he refers us to Isa 40.13 14. which place expresly teacheth the quite contrary viz. That the Spirit of God hath none to teach or direct him the tenour of the place is this Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his Counsellor hath taught him With whom took he counsel or who instructed him and taught him in the path of Judgment and taught him knowledge and shewed to him the way of understanding I know not what words can with more pregnant and express emphaticalness assert the undeceivedness of the wisdom and knowledge of the Holy Ghost than these The Prophet David maketh this an Argument or sign of the departure of men from the Tents of such persons who are secret Enemies unto God viz. making their Tongues to fall upon themselves that is their uttering and speaking such things which apparently make against their own interest and designs Psal 64.8 So they shall make their own Tongues to fall upon themselves all that see them viz. thus ensnared and entangled shall fly away that is shall forsake their party shall no longer be confederate with them This for his fourth Argument The fifth Argument
Spirit the Holy Spirit so much spoken of in the Scriptures to be God The debate of this Question we have already finished Another of the three Questions was How or what course a Christian or any other Person Man or Woman may and ought to take to be filled with the Spirit i.e. How or after what manner the Exhortation imposed in the Text is to be obeyed or put in execution The third and last Question was How a man or woman may either come to discern and know themselves or how others may come to the like knowledge of them whether they be filled with the Spirit I mean the Spirit of God or some other Spirit of another nature and contrary to it I suppose much light will be given by the examination of the truth in the Former of the two Questions for the decision of the Latter so that we may be somewhat the briefer here To begin then with the former of these Questions Sect. 2 how a Christian or a Believer yea or any other person may be filled with the Spirit which the Text and Doctrine mention for it will appear by the way that any other Person as well as a Believer is in a capacity though somewhat more remote of being filled with the Spirit likewise What it is to be filled with the Spirit hath been formerly declared in the opening of the Doctrine notwithstanding I conceive it is necessary for the resolution of the Question in hand that we briefly remind you of what we delivered in that kind we signified unto you that to be filled with the Spirit doth not note and import an absolute and precise fulness that is a having of the Spirit in such a precise fulness and height that there is no capacity left of having more of him No but as in Scripture Phrase a Vessel is said to be full when there is a good and sufficient and competent proportion in it and so in ordinary discourse we say a Cup is full of drink not when it is full to the brim but if there be a good quantity and proportion in it just so a fulness with the Spirit doth not suppose or imply such a uniform kind of fulness as if no man could be said to be full of the Spirit but only he that is fullest of all But if any person be acted by the Spirit or doth quit himself like unto a man he in whom the Spirit hath any considerable power of command may be truly said to be filled with the Spirit as David had many Worthies in his Army and yet they did not reach or attain unto the three first though they were worthy in their way so there may be many Christians of several sizes and degrees who yet may be said to be filled with the Spirit of God So that in propriety of Phrase it signifieth to have an actuous vigorous and operative presence of the Holy Ghost in you to enjoy his grace love and favour upon such terms as to receive from him and from the glory of his power ever and anon upon all occasions excellent quicknings incitements impulses enlargements strengthnings of heart and soul unto every worthy way and every good work to have all contrary workings motions and risings of the flesh borne down with a strong hand and swallowed up in victory so that a man or woman shall find no great no considerable opposition or turmoile as formerly from any weakness or corruption within him in his way of well-doing but only such which he shall be enabled and this at a very good rate to overcome I say when this is found to be the case and condition of any Christian it is a sign of such a presence or fulness of the Spirit of God I here describe unto you only that kind of filling with the Spirit which is the duty of all Christians as of other persons also in their way to mind look after and be industriously careful to obtain and which only I conceive is intended by the Apostle in the Text. For I do not conceive that he doth admonish and exhort the Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit as if his meaning should be that he would have them be filled with such a kind of filling by which some were enabled to work miracles or reveal things secret and unrevealed in the Scriptures being yet future and to come Although I can easily believe that even such a filling with the Spirit as this at least to a considerable degree was within the reach of Christians in the Apostles daies yea and that the Apostle did exhort the Corinthians 1 Cor. 12.31 to seek after some such kind of filling as this in these words but covet earnestly after the best gifts Doubtless he would not have had them to lay out themselves with any desire after these extraordinary gifts of the Spirit as speaking with Tongues and Prophecying but that there was a means for the attaining of them But that filling with the Spirit which he commendeth to the Ephesians by way of duty in the words before us is only or at least principally such a filling as we have both formerly and even now described unto you which respecteth the effectual stirring up and strengthening of the hearts and souls of men unto waies and works of righteousness and these of the worthiest and most excellent kind and strain And yet it is not unlike but that if men and women should quit themselves worthily and with faithfulness in this Race I mean in their endeavours to be filled with the Spirit in that kind or sense we speak of there would be cast in unto them by way of heaped measure somewhat of that kind of filling also they should have a kind of first fruits of those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit also as of healing of the sick declaring things to come c. I could give an account of my apprehension in this kind and this in more particulars than one were it not for fear of lengthening out this Discourse in hand beyond what you are willing to bear Notwithstanding Sect. 3 there is one thing more necessary I conceive to be touched here also in order to your better satisfaction about the Question in hand though something as I remember hath been spoken to it formerly that is How it can stand with the weakness and unworthiness of the Creature man on the one hand and the incomprehensible Majesty and Glory of the Holy Ghost on the other hand that it should be in the power of man to procure or draw into himself i.e. into his heart and soul such a rich or glorious presence of the Spirit as that wherein our being filled with him consists Or whether in this case the Spirit may not be conceived to be obnoxious unto or in the power of man I am the rather desirous to remove this stumbling block out of the way before we go forward to give reply to the principal Question propounded because I conceive it must needs be
external Act it self of sin This is done when the heart or will of man or woman falleth in with the Lust and taketh her to Wife and couple themselves with her i. e. when men approve and like of the Lust or Desire we speak of and begin to take care as the Apostle elsewhere speaks to make provision for it or to bethink themselves how they may gratifie it and fulfil it By the way when James saith as we have heard Then when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin The meaning is not as if this alwaies proved so viz. that every Lust consented unto produceth the external or complete Act of sinning there are many times Conceptions where there are no Births or bringing forth of Children many things may interpose to occasion an abortion or a consumption of that which is conceived in the womb And thus it may be and often is in the case of Lusts in their conceptions many men have for a time intended and purposed to do many things that are evil whose purposes and intentions notwithstanding have been dissolved or turned out of their way so that they never come to be put in execution This is apparent in Davids case when by Abigail's wise behaviour and advice he was taken off from his hard and bloudy intentions against Nabal and his House Therefore the Apostles meaning in saying that when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin is not to shew what is alwaies done in the case he speaks of but what is frequently done and alwaies likely or probable to be done of which kind of sayings there are very many in the Scriptures Joh. 11.9 10. If any man walk in the day saith our Saviour he stumbleth not but if a man walk in the night he stumbleth his meaning is neither to affirm that no man that walketh in the day ever stumbleth nor that every man that walketh in the night doth stumble but only that there is a probability both of the one and of the other and that they are likely either to stumble or not to stumble So likewise the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 7.32 33. The unmarried careth for the things of the Lord c. But this only by the way The business we have in hand is to give you to understand and know that that kind of lusting which hindreth your being filled with the Spirit yea and will hinder it untill it be taken away is that which is owned accepted and approved of by the will and judgement of a man or woman and for the gratifying and fulfilling whereof care is taken by men Such lusts as these are they which grieve and quench the Spirit and consequently hinder his progress motion or advance in the soul When with the Scriptures we say the Spirit is grieved we do not mean nor doth the Holy Ghost in this expression mean any thing else but only that he is turned out of the way he doth retire himself and is quiet and still men shall hear but very little from him so that there will be but very weak and faint motions and suggestions from him But we were saying unto you that all fleshly lusts in the general are obstructive to the course of the Spirit Sect. 15 in his advance or growth in the soul Now as all Lusts in the general entertained and countenanced as hath been declared in the heart and soul are malignant against and opposite unto the growth and coming on of the Spirit in the Soul so the Scriptures seem to cast an eye upon some as being of a more virulent and express antipathy in this kind than others and obstruct that blessedness of the soul we speak of with an higher hand than their fellows These are such lusts which carry in them a direct contrariety to those signal characters or properties which the Scriptures take notice of and ascribe unto the Holy Ghost We shall take notice of at present and briefly insist upon only four of these and the like number of lusts in men more directly opposite unto them First The Spirit of God is famously known throughout the Scriptures by the great attribute of holiness he is more frequently termed the holy Spirit than spoken of under any other name or expressed by any other Character whatsoever We shall not need to cite places for this The thing I presume is sufficiently known unto you all A second property which the Scriptures attribute unto the Spirit of God is Grace or a gracious disposition Heb. 10.29 He is termed The Spirit of grace And God is termed The God of all grace 1 Pet. 5.10 A third property taken notice of in the Holy Ghost by the Scriptures is his heavenliness he is said in 1 Pet. 1.12 to have been sent down from heaven which implies that his coming or sending into the World is about the affairs of heaven and that he only mindeth these so elsewhere he is said to be the Spirit which is of God 1 Cor. 2.12 14. So also in Joh. 15.26 Christ promiseth to send him from the Father all which imply him to be an heavenly and heavenly minded Spirit A fourth property and the last we shall now take notice of which the Scriptures mind in the Holy Ghost is a disposition and propensness of mind in him to be communicating and revealing the Counsels and secret things of God unto the minds and consciences of men This property of the Spirit of God which is of some assinity with the last named and gives testimony unto it is oft mentioned in the Scriptures 1 Cor. 2.10 11 12 13. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God For what man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him c. So again ver 12 13. Now we have not received the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know viz. by his discovering it unto our Judgments and Consciences the things that are freely given to us of God which things also we speak not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth And so in Joh. 16.13 Howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come speaking of the Comforter he will guide you into all truth c. and he will shew you things to come c. This is another heavenly property of him who cometh from the Father to communicate and acquaint men with the great mysteries of the Counsels of God so far as it doth concern the souls of men to know them Now all such lusts and sinful dispositions being indulged and nourished which are contrary to and fight against these properties and dispositions of the Spirit are and must in reason needs be most distasteful unto him and consequently most obstructive to him in his way of advancing his blessed presence in the souls of men The first of the four Particulars attributed unto the Holy Ghost in Scripture was holiness Sect.
find persons so filled with the Spirit of God that they do not give some such sign or testimony as now we speak of something to discover their temper humour and such kind of Principles within them that make them stiff that they cannot bow nor comply Their Iron Sinew is not yet broken they have not taken the course they have not dealt effectually with their hearts to bring them into subjection they have not chastened their Souls every morning as David did who had disciplined and nurtured his heart to some kind of order and compliance with God in all his occasions and affairs And so much for this Direction or the second Rule given by which we may know whether men be filled with the Spirit of God namely if they understand judgment as the Scriptures speak and then be ready in their hearts and affections to concur and to measure out to every case and business according to the exigency and requirements of it this now doth declare an excellent degree of the fulness of the Spirit of God with them And Thirdly Sect. 11 A deep degree of Mortification especially when the work is uniform spreading and stretching it self with an equal force and power unto all a mans Affections Disposition and Desires which ought to be mortified with the Deeds Fruits and Works of them This I say is another great Argument or sign of a man or womans being filled with the Spirit of God The work of Mortification is performable only by the Spirit of God and therefore where it is performed and wrought thoroughly where it appears in any degree of glory it must needs argue a great presence of the Spirit For if ye live after the flesh saith the Apostle ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8.13 If you ask me But why doth the Apostle place the great work of Mortification in the deeds of the body in having these mortified and not rather in those sinful affections and inward dispositions from whence they proceed I reply That he placeth it here in the deeds of the body because it is principally seen and the reality and truth of it found there though the work it self lieth most in the heart and inward man yet the energy and force chiefly appeareth in the abolishing or cessation of the deeds of the flesh or of the body When such sinful and unworthy actions cease to be found in men and women whereunto others are tempted by the flesh or by the occasions of the flesh and ever and anon are practicing of them it is a sign that the work of Mortification is real and in truth yet elsewhere the same Apostle placeth it in the affections and lusts of the flesh in having these crucified or moâ—tified Gal. 5.24 And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts i.e. they that are Christs i. e. that are his Disciples or that have resigned up themselves unto him or are subject unto him have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts i.e. have pierced the flesh or outer man thorough and thorough with such sharp and effectual considerations that the strength and vigour of it as to sinful demands or actions is much spent and wasted and as the natural strength and vigour of a man that is nailed to a Cross breatheth out by degrees in that bloud that cometh from him by his wounds so have ye crucified the flesh with the affections or passions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and lusts thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the passions i. e. with all those affections which belong to the irascible part of the soul as both Philosophers and Divines call it Anger Wrath Hatred Envy Revenge c. they have crucified these i.e. they have taken a course to break the strength and to suppress the motions and breakings out of these And the lusts i.e. all those affections also which belong to the other part of the soul which they call the Concupiscible such as are Fornication Uncleanness Drunkenness Gluttony Covetousness c. So then we say that when the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts and Deeds thereof are so crucified or mortified so handled that men and women are become Meek Patient Humble Gentle long-suffering c. And again Chaste Pure Sober Temperate free from Covetousness and all this to an excellent degree it is a sign that they are full of the Spirit of God the reason is because First If these things be in any weak and imperfect degree in men Sect. 12 they proceed from the Spirit of God and must be wrought by him Secondly A being filled with the Spirit is no waies to be estimated and discerned but by a proportionable excellency or fulness of his operations and effects Now the work of mortification as hath been in part described is one of the most signal works of the Spirit and therefore where it is full or any thing rich and deep it argues a great presence of the Spirit but the truth is it is very hard to be found in any such degree as that we speak of even amongst Professours yea or Believers themselves Men and women have generally some sinful humours and dispositions or other unbroken and unsubdued either they are Cholerick Hasty Froward easily Provoked Revengeful and the like or else they are given to Pleasures Ease Voluptuousness of life desires of Riches Honour Power the great things of the World And though many keep within some tolerable compass in respect of the breaking out of these and such like unmortified affections whilst the Tempter keepeth at a distance from them and some few it may be whilst the Temptations runs somewhat low and are but ordinary yet the greatest part of the persons we speak of Professors I mean are apt to be overcome and led away Captive unto Sin by every touch of Temptation any Temptation almost that will may serve it self upon them Even as some mens Judgments are so weak that they are apt to be carried about with every wind of Doctrine as the Apostle speaks apt to take impressions of any thing that is presented unto them with the lightest appearance of truth but to find a man or woman that is able to stand their ground of innocency when any strong temptations beare hard upon them is exceeding rare which argues the work of Mortification to be very imperfect and slight in the greatest part of men and consequently that they are far from being filled with the Spirit of God If it be here demanded Sect. 13 But are not all the works of the Spirit of God perfect If he work Mortification in any person must it not needs be perfect Can any thing proceed from that which is perfect yea most perfect as the Spirit of God is but that which is perfect indeed I reply The perfection of a work may be estimated or considered two waies First Absolutely or in reference only to it self
those Motives which were he intent upon would do the deed would amount to such a holy and sacred anointing as now we speak of your being filled with the Spirit of God whereby you would be made Priests of the Living God So much for the First Use of the Doctrine the Use of Instruction CHAP. XIII A Second Vse of the Doctrine being a Vse of Reproof unto all those who are Enemies unto this heavenly Exhortation and Counsel of the Holy Ghost administred unto men namely to be filled with the Spirit and who by any means obstruct the course of it A first sort are such who scoff at such a thing as a being filled with the Spirit of God A second sort of Offenders are such who perswade men that the Spirit which they are exhorted to be filled with is but a finite Spirit an Angel and not God Wherein many things are further argued proving the Holy Ghost to be the most High God THe second Use was a Use of Reproof Sect. 1 and this in the general of all those who are Enemies to this heavenly Exhortation this blessed Counsel administred by the Holy Ghost unto men of being filled with the Spirit of God who either by word or by deed or by both obstruct the course of it that it doth not run is not glorified in the World as it ought to be Of these kind of Offenders there are several Species or sorts highly censurable by the Divine Authority of the Doctrine and truth delivered The first are they who being strangers altogether to the Spirit of God the Spirit of which both the Text and and the Doctrine speaketh are full of the Spirit of the World or rather of the God of the World Sathan who instead of being full of the Spirit of God laugh at all Discourses of mens being filled with him yea or of so much as having the Spirit of God in them to scorn hearing from the mouths of faithful Ministers of God sometimes and it may be from the discourse of other Christians that the Saints and Servants of God such who truly believe in Jesus Christ are led by the Spirit of God and taught by him how to pray how to walk holily and soberly and righteously in the World they make a mock at it as some of the more ignorant and prophane Jews did at the Apostles being filled with the Spirit we speak of Acts 2.13 When they spake with strange Tongues Others mocking saith the Text said these men are full of New-wine When any thing of God or of the Spirit of God more than ordinary in one kind or other appeareth in any of the Saints or Servants of God they that are ignorant of God and of his waies will never own or acknowledge the procedure of it to be from God if they can but imagine any other cause though with never so slight appearance from whence there is the least probability that it may proceed yea if they can imagine any cause in this case which is worse than other and which is more disparaging unto the persons in whom that grace and power of God we speak of doth appear this shall be the cause unto which the excellent work of God in his Saints shall be imputed and ascribed How little reason or colour of reason was there to pretend or think that New Wine over-freely drank or taken by men should put them into a capacity of speaking with Tongues strange Tongues such as they never understood or were able to speak before They knew well enough many of the Company that were there or amongst them that every one that spake had a distinct knowledge of the Tongue of their own Nation We hear them speak all in our own Language said they Now I say let any sober and considering man think but a little of the business how impossible a thing it is that New Wine should invest men with a capacity and an ability to speak with strange Tongues in a strange language yet rather than they would acknowledge that the Spirit was the Author thereof they attribute it to New Wine New Wine may cause them to speak freely and at random but not in other Tongues they may indeed speak none-sense and not distinctly or else that which no man can understand but that it should enable and qualifie men for the speaking in strange Tongues distinctly and sensibly to the understanding of other men there is not the least colour or the lightest pretense thus to argue But ignorant persons and such as are prophane what will they not do to harden themselves though in the most irrational and senseless manner that may be And besides the things which the Apostles here spake and uttered and which were understood by those who so imputed the speaking of them in variety of Languages were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Magnalia the great and wonderful things of God If New Wine had been the inspirer these could not have been the great things of God that they had spoken but the great things of the Devil and of the World So when the Lord Christ cast out the unclean Spirit out of him that was possessed Mat. 12.24 it is said that the Pharisees presently charged this upon Sathan and upon his having to do with him because the Devil is a supernatural Agent in that sense which we usually take supernatural That is he is able to do things which are strange and out of the course of Nature therefore he is a kind of reserve for ignorant and wicked men when they meet with any thing of God and of the Spirit of God in the Saints they have the Devil in readiness to impute all these things unto As I remember I have read in the Story of Martyrs when any of the Martyrs shewed any invincible courage or patience in the midst of their torments the Priests that stood by would still perswade the People that the Devil had bereaved them of their senses and had distracted them before the fire came at them and by this kind of colour and feigned pretense they thought to way-lay and to stop the course of the apprehension of the common sort of People lest they should think that there was any great appearance of God in them So when the Lord Christ taught the People with so much wisdom and understanding that they were astonished and the greatest part of them began to admire how he that had not known a Letter should speak at such a rate as he did it is said they were offended at him Mat. 13.57 implying they thought that he came not by it lawfully but by the help of the Devil they could not make it out that he was a good man because they were ignorant of his gifts therefore they fall foul upon the Lord Christ So Paul in those high strains whether in teaching or rather in practice or acting in the World which the Corinthians could not comprehend nor reconcile with such Principles as they were acted by was
unto persons of both opinions whose waies otherwise are worthy the Gospel and Profession thereof yet the truth is that partly the nature and partly the consequence of the two Opinions compared together their distance being so great as it is and they so contrary one unto the other it is not a matter of easie conception how they both should be saved unless with the men against whom we now argue and have under reproof who are in this respect the off-spring of the old Hereticks called the Origenlans who hold that after a certain time all men without exception as well bad as good shall be saved yea the very truth is that the entire Systeme and body of that Religion and Doctrine some few common and general Principles only excepted and these also corruptly understood which the men we now speak of own is scarce any thing else but a Rapsody or Fardle of old abhorrid Errors and Heresies of the Anthropomorphits Arians Macedonians Origenists with several others who were the greatest troublers of the Gospel in the course of it and Enemies and Opposers of the Truth in their times Sixthly and lastly All the premised particulars duly weighed Sect. 18 and considered methinks any sober and considering Christian should require and stand up every whit as much for his satisfaction and conviction in this opinion that the Holy Ghost is but a meer Creature and to bring over his Judgment thereunto as the Jews did to perswade them that Christ was the Son of God who as our Saviour himself told the Nobleman at Capernaum Joh. 4.48 were at such a distance from believing it that exept they saw signs and wonders they would not believe they were resolved not to believe it upon any inferiour or lower account In like manner considering what the Scriptures speak in way of oppesition and how matters have gone all along from Age to Age in the Christian Churches in reference to this Doctrine and Opinion that the Holy Ghost is a Creature and not God It is strange to me that any sober or well advised persons professing Christianity should entertain it upon terms of any weak or less convincing demonstration than of Miracles and Signs and Wonders or of the Testimony of an Angel from heaven to assert it and therefore they that do subject unto it are of that Generation of men which the Wiseman speaketh of Pro. 14.15 They are of the House and Linage of that simple man who will believe every thing any thing let the nature of it be never so inconsistent and the connexion between things never so loose and groundless I had not insisted upon this branch of our Use of Reproof so largely but that the delinquent spirit is so rampant in the World and busily acting his part near unto us and amongst us and the Apostles direction to Titus is Tit. 1.9 10. That a Bishop or Pastor of a Church should hold fast the faithful Word as he hath been taught viz. by the Apostles that he may be able by sound Doctrine to exhort and convince the gain-sayer for there are many unruly and vain talkers especially they of the Circumcision whose mouths must be stopped There are men and still have been whose mouths must be stopped but not as some would interpret it by Prisons or by Sword No but stopped they must be i. e. way-laid in their Judgments Consciences and Understandings by the Scriptures This is that which the Apostle requireth in a Bishop that he may be able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and convince And by the way take notice of this that he must exhort by sound Doctrine the truth is that many Bishops in the World do exhort many times very soundly but not by sound Doctrine For their Doctrine standeth at West and their Exhortation standeth South Now a faithful Bishop every man in that Office and Place must exhort with sound Doctrine his Exhortation must be comportant with the spirit and soul and tendency of his Doctrine the one must not be a Samaritan and the other a Jew But this by the way I shall leave this sort of Offenders at present only with reminding them of that passage of our Saviour Mat. 5.19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least of these Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven My Brethren to break any of the least of the Commands of Christ knowingly when a man doth understand and is convinced that it is the Command of Christ is a sin of high provocation unto God but especially to teach men so to do i. e. to teach such a Doctrine which may strengthen any mans hand to despise neglect and disregard any Commandment of Christ this is provoking in the sight of God and that in the highest and of such a demerit that such a man deserves no place in the Kingdom of God Therefore whosoever they be who shall first weaken their own hands before they weaken anothers they that teach themselves to break the Commands of God and then shall spread abroad such Opinions and Notions that shall animate and encourage men so to do they shall be least in the Kingdom of God they shall have no respect there they shall not be numbred amongst the Servants of Jesus Christ therefore such persons as these who bring in and set on foot any such Doctrine which doth break and quench the endeavours of the spirit of men from following any piece or strain of that heavenly Counsel which the Holy Ghost hath given unto men certainly they fall under this heavy Sentence and Censure of Jesus Christ to be least in the Kingdom of Heaven CHAP. XIV A third sort of Offenders reproved are such who instead of following the Exhortation of being filled with the Spirit take a course to be emptied of the Spirit of God Who make it matter of Conscience to turn their backs upon the Ministry of the Gospel which is called the Ministry of the Spirit Wherein the several Scriptures and Reasons by which they strengthen themselves in their evil way are examined and found bent against them And likewise the necessity of the Ministry of the Gospel and the great benefit thereof largely asserted and vindicated A Third sort of Offenders to be reproved upon the former general account viz. as Enemies to that subjection Sect. 1 and observation which ought to be given to the Apostles Exhortation of being filled with the Spirit are such who take a course rather to be emptied of the Spirit of God than to be filled with him and of losing all that presence and Communion with the Spirit which sometimes they had received and yet may partake of to some degree and that by falling upon such practices and engaging in such courses which are of a direct tendency to dispossess them of all Communion with him and to make an absolute separation of the Spirit of God from them These are of two sorts The first are those who make
it matter of Conscience to turn their backs upon the Ministry of the Gospel which as the Apostle calleth it is the Ministration of the Spirit Secondly They who though they do not make it matter of Conscience to neglect or despise this Ministry yet make it no matter of Couscience diligently to attend upon it when they know otherwise how to bestow their time whether in the pursuit of their pleasures or recreation or in the service of Mammon and attending upon the World between these we might insert a third sort viz. such who though they have not turned their backs upon the Ministry and preaching of the Gospel but seem to make it some matter of Conscience to attend upon it yet have itching ears and cannot long together endure wholsome and sound Doctrine but run from Mountain to Hill from one Minister to another For the first We all know that of late years there is a strange spirit of Error and Ungodliness gone out into the World and walks up and down the Streets of your City and hath taken the heads or hearts rather of many who sometimes greatly loved or at least seemed thus to love the Assemblies of the Saints and those discoveries of himself which God is wont by his Word and the Ministry thereof to make from day to day unto them The Spirit we now speak of is a Spirit which teacheth men to say that the Tabernacles of the Lord of Hosts are vile and for the Ministry of the Gospel and the opening the Mysteries thereof by those that have an Anointing from heaven to do it Wherein is it to be esteemed This Spirit also reacheth and perswadeth those men to fortifie and strengthen or harden themselves in their way not only by Reasons and Arguments such as they are but by the Scriptures themselves also as if they were divided in themselves and destroyed with one hand what they build up with the other Do not men who suffer themselves to be lead by this superordinancing Spirit rather consult the emptying of themselves of the Spirit of God than their filling with him and take a course by degrees wholly to bereave and dispossess themselves of that presence of his in them which at present they do enjoy or have enjoyed formerly Where no wood is saith Solomon or as the Hebrew hath it Prov. 26.20 without wood the fire goeth out In like manner except the Spirit of God in men be fed and nourished with the fresh and new comings in of the light of the knowledge of God and of Christ his presence will languish and sink and die in a manner Hence it is that the Apostle having admonished the Thessalonians not to quench the Spirit 1 Thes 5.19 He immediately subjoyneth by way of caution ver 20. and presignification how they might and must prevent it Despise not Prophesying or as our last Translation with more agreeableness to the Original rendreth it Despise not Prophesyings in the plural number Prophesyings i.e. the opening and interpreting the Word of God by a proper gift of the Spirit for the work if this be despised i. e. made nothing of as the word signifieth then the Spirit in men and women will be quenched i. e. the vigour and activeness of his presence in men will abate and if the neglect and disesteem be long continued in will by degrees wholly cease The word Prophesyings in the Plural number seems to imply that not only or simply to despise Prophesying i. e. the Work or Ordinance it self in the general of Preaching or opening the Scriptures is the ready way to quench the Spirit but to despise the frequency of the opportunities vouchsafed by God in that kind viz. when the bountiful providence of God affordeth unto men and women frequent opportunities of attending upon the Spirit of God in the exercise of Prophesyings and when they may be diligence and wise ordering and disposing of their secular and worldly occasions without any considerable inconveniency frequently attend the openings of the mouth of God which we spake of and yet they shall frequently neglect to do it pleasing themselves with a conceipt that to attend on Prophesying on the Lord's day only is sufficient If the persons with whom we have to do in the reproof in hand Sect. 2 should ask me But why should the despising or neglecting of Prophesying or of the Ministry of the Word be the quenching of the Spirit or a way to empty us of the Spirit I reply First Suppose we could give no other reason of the thing now enquired into but only the Will and pleasure of God and could say no more in the case but this that it is the Counsel of the Will of God to make the attendance of the Creature man upon the Ministry of the Gospel where he vouchsafeth it the condition of the Spirits presence or abiding with him so that in case he doth neglect it his Spirit shall withdraw from him If there were nothing else but this Were not this enough to satisfie any man of Conscience But now the truth is that the reasons of this Counsel of the Will of God that the attendence upon the Ministry of the Gospel should be a standing means to preserve and maintain the presence of the Spirit of God the reasons I say are not so hard to come at in this case but that if the Minds Judgments and Understandings of men were impartially engaged in the enquiry after what the Scriptures speak as to matters of this nature they might be clearly discerned The reasons therefore why God hath made such a Connexion between the attending upon the Ministry of the Word and the presence of his Spirit are first because the word of God is as it were the materials or proper matter for the Holy Ghost to work on to work all his excellent and heavenly works in the hearts and souls of men As for example to work Faith Peace Joy and Righteousness and Holiness and Love c. The Holy Ghost produceth all these excellent works in the hearts of men by the truths of God in the Gospel As an Artificer worketh upon his materials and by his Art and Skil produceth his Artificial piece as a Carpenter upon his Timber or a Goldsmith upon his Metal so that if you do not furnish them with these materials they can do nothing As the Carpenter cannot work when he hath no Timber the Holy Ghost in like manner if there be no Vision no Truth no New Light coming in for him to work on he will take no pleasure nor delight to inhabit or continue there He shall saith our Saviour speaking to his Disciples of the Holy Ghost He shall receive or take of mine and shall shew it unto you Joh. 16.14 What things of his doth our Saviour mean the Holy shall take and shew Doubtless they are such things of his or relating unto him which are contained and asserted in the Gospel As his Divine Nature Humane Nature his Incarnation Conception
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
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
the World by making of the Stones of the Earth Children unto Abraham This needs no other proof but only the Testimony of so many thousands that do acknowledge themselves to be brought into Captivity unto Jesus Christ by the Ministry The Trophies of the Gospel are hung up in the sight of the World in all the parts and quarters of it it hath cast down in men and women many a strong hold many high thoughts have been thrown down by the efficacy and power of it it is of an undermining nature and of the Wisdom of the Flesh and of the World which are the Enemies that it meeteth with and hath to encounter in the course of it alas it maketh straw and stubble and rotten wood it doth detect and demonstrate the vanity and emptiness of this Wisdom and maketh it evident to the Consciences of men that if they will follow such and such Principles Notions and Apprehensions as they bring with them to the Gospel they are lost men they mistake the way of life and peace and shall most certainly come to the Chambers of death and Eternal destruction in the end And as for such things which it commendeth for truth it doth so fortifie the truth of them upon such terms of excellent demonstration conviction and power that except men be desperately bent and set upon their own ruine and destruction they cannot but give place to it and fall down before it and say of a truth this is indeed no other but the wisdom of God Thirdly That it might have been or yet may be as effectual unto the men we speak of if they would but remove that which obstructeth the efficacy and power of it is evident from many places Joh. 5.44 How can ye believe which receive honour one of another As if he had said that if they had not resolved that they would retain and not cast out from them that wicked and crooked humour and disposition of theirs viz. to seek honour one of another to seek the great things of this World and so to strengthen themselves in thier fleshly interest this way they might have believed as others did This therefore was the only thing that stood in the way of these people and was as walls and bars in the way of believing they did divide and give out their strength in seeking after honour and wealth c. and as Theives use to do divide parts amongst themselves Now so long as they were thus resolved to stick together they kept one another in their way and course upon such terms that they could not believe For by this means as the Artificers said of their Craft they had their living much of their wealth and honour came in upon the account of the credit and opinion men had of them Now when Jesus Christ did preach Doctrines contrary to the waies and policies of these men which did detect their nakedness and discover their wickedness and unworthiness they resolved to stand one by another and defend one another so that it was all one what he should say unto them they were bent upon their course For there is nothing but if men will be wilful they may withstand even the efficacy of the Gospel it self If it be here demanded Sect. 19 But is the Ministry you speak of no more efficacious or powerful than to be obnoxious unto the resistance of men Are men able by one means or other to hinder the efficacy and power of it Or is it not reasonable to conceive that the efficacy of the Ministry should consist as well in removing that out of the hearts and minds of men whatsoever it be that obstructs the efficacy of it otherwise the saving efficacy of it as in any other vertue property and power of it whatsoever Or if it be not efficacious enough to remove that out of mens waies which hindereth the saving efficacy of it wherein is it to be esteemed for any efficacy in it at all If it be not effectual to save men all the efficacy otherwise is not to be regarded I reply First That the Ministry of the Gospel cannot be conceived to be more effectual than the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God now that the Holy Ghost may be and is resisted by men appeareth Acts 7.51 where it is said that they had alwaies resisted the Holy Ghost therefore it is very clear that the Ministry of the Gospel may be resisted we know that the Arm of Christ was the mighty Arm of God his out-stretched Arm yet the Scripture saith that the unworthiness of the people was such that he could do there namely in his own Country no mighty works Mat. 13.58 Mar. 6.5 And the reason of this again was because they did not set their hearts upon the consideration of such things as he did nor upon the words which he spake therefore he could do no great works that is he had no mind or will to do them Now when a man is unwilling to do a thing he may according to Scripture Dialect and manner of speaking Gen. 39.9 2 Cor. 13.8 1 Joh. 3.9 be said to be unable to do it That Christ could not do any great work there was because it did circumstances being as they were not stand with the Wisdom by which his Will was steered nor with those Rules of Righteousness Holiness Justice and Mercy by which he was acted in his whole course So it is in the Ministry of the Gospel if men shall behave themselves at any such desperate rate of unworthiness or of slothfulness and oscitancy or especially stubbornness and stoutness of spirit that they still take hold of any pretense to oppose the truth that is coming upon them like an Armed man if men I say do suffer themselves in any such strain of Impiety and opposition against God the Ministry of the Gospel is not like to have its effect upon them in respect of the beneficial end of it it is true the Holy Ghost even when he was resisted was full of power and did vindicate himself very gloriously in the Consciences of those that did resist him and yet it is said he was resisted because he was put by from that blessed work those saving effects which otherwise he was purposed to have done and to have accomplished Even so the Ministry of the Gospel let men oppose it and let men seek Pleas and Pretenses to decline it yet nevertheless it is full of power and authority even over those who shall rebel with the highest hand against it it doth act with terrible power and conviction even upon the hearts and souls and consciences of them and leaves deep impressions of the power and glory of it Secondly The efficacy of the Ministry of the Gospel doth not stand in the actual conversion of men or in the actual edification of men nor in making of men actually willing to be converted or turned unto God for if it were to be estimated or measured by this Rule it might
rather be judged powerless and weak than powerful and glorious in efficacy and might because the greatest part of those who do partake of it are not effectually and savingly wrought upon by it nor made actually willing to be converted Take it in the time of our Lord Jesus Christ himself and in the times of the Apostles when the Ministry of the Gospel was in the heighth of its glory the greatest part of them that stood by and were under it remained still unsubdued unto it so that the efficacy of it is not to be estimated by the actual conversion no nor by the actual edification of men But Thirdly Sect. 20 The efficacy of the Ministry of the Gospel is to be considered and judged of partly in the weightiness or penetrating force of those Arguments or Motives which it layeth before men and presseth upon their souls and consciences to give up themselves unto God partly again in the demonstrative evidence of the reality and truth of the said Arguments and Motives partly also in its dispensing and deriving the Divine Spirit the Spirit of God unto those who hearken diligently and submit heartily unto it First The mighty efficacy of the Ministry we speak of stands in those stupendious formidable potent and mighty Arguments by which it urgeth and presseth and adjureth the Consciences of men to accept of those Articles or Terms of Peace and Reconciliation which the Gospel holdeth forth and calleth men unto They who attempt to perswade unto other Studies Practices or Engagements of themselves in one kind or other as some endeavour to perswade men to the study of Natural some of Moral Philosophy others to the study of the Mathematicks others to the studies of others Sciences some perswade men to good Husbandry some to Marry some to one Calling some to another but what Subject soever it be about which men treate or deal with men or seek to perswade men unto they have no such Motives or Grounds of Perswasion to make the hearts and minds of those with whom they have to do to embrace their Motions or advice The Weapons of their Warfare are but Stubble or Straw or rotten wood in comparison the nature of the Subjects doth not admit of any great Motives or any considerable Arguments to perswade unto them Whereas the Weapons of that Warfare which the Ministry of the Gospel manageth are sharp as a two edged Sword these are Arrows and Spears pointed with fire that will cut thorough and conquer the Souls and Consciences of men these will lie upon the Spirits of men like a great mountain of Lead that they shall not be able to get from under them The Ministry of the Gospel adjureth and chargeth by the love and by the tender mercies of God by the glory of the great things of the World to come by the saving of their Souls from the Wrath and Vengeance of Eternal fire these are mighty in operation they are high and terrible like fire in the bosome nor can men decline the force of them unless they will be Companions with the Horse and Mule and with the bruit Beast of the Field which have no understanding This is one things wherein the glorious efficacy of the Ministry of the Gospel consisteth and commendeth it self it hath mighty Engines and Screws whereby to manage and command the hearts and consciences of men and to lift them up to those practices and waies whereunto it exhorteth and perswadeth them In respect of the mighty efficacy and force of those great Engines Motives and Arguments we speak of the Ministers of the Gospel who are employed herein by a dexterous and faithful application or setting them home to the hearts and consciences of men are said to compel men to come in Luke 14.23 Not that all persons to whom these Engines are faithfully applied are removed from the World and carried home unto God Not that they should bring them in by head and shoulders whether they will or no as some interpret but they should compel i. e. they should make use of these kind of Arguments untill they had by an high hand of power and perswasion prevailed with them to believe and to come unto Christ Secondly Sect. 21 Another thing wherein the efficacy of the Ministry of the Gospel is considerable is that it is furnished by God with demonstrative Grounds and Arguments whereby to secure the Judgements and Consciences of men and women of the reality and truth of these Motives and Grounds of perswasion by which it manageth and carrieth on its great design viz. of bringing men from sin and from the World unto God For though these were such realities though they had as substantial and true existence and being as wither the Angels in Heaven or God himself yet if this their existence and being could not be demonstrated and made out unto men if the Ministry we speak of were not accomplished with light to convince and satisfie the Judgments and Consciences of men that the great things mentioned are no devised Fables or vain Speculations and Notions but are as real and certain in their being as things that may be seen heard or handled I say if the Ministry of the Gospel did bear it self upon no better terms than these and were not able to make good the reality and certainty of the things which it hath asserted the Consciences of men would very easily despise it as well they might do and cast it behind their backs But when it shall prove that there is such a misery and extremity that doth abide wicked and ungodly men that there is a fire that never goeth out and a worm that never dieth and that there are such things laid up in the Heavens for those that fear God that there is an equality with the holy Angels and eating of bread with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and a thousand expressions more of the same kind I say when the Ministry of the Gospel shall be able to fill the Judgements and Consciences of men with a certain knowledge and conviction of the reality and existency of such things as these this is that which furnisheth them with an executive power and maketh them Motives and Arguments of such a nature that men must be very desperate and turn-head upon nature and act contrary to their own peace safety and happiness otherwise they cannot withstand them nor go from them nor rise up against them these Chords are too strong and bind too fast and close so that unless men cease to be men they cannot burst them in sunder It is a saying in the Metaphysicks That which is not hath no manner of operation there is the same reason in Moralities or Moral Actions That which is not known and apprehended hath no influence no operation or work upon the mind or consciences of men And indeed if the Ministry of the Gospel were unprovided at this Point if it were not furnished with weight to make the great Engines move with which
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
ordinarily it is uttered by the Mouth of the Conscience which is not wont to be wide opened unless it be in some broader or more known duties of the Second Table what the reason hereof is is not so proper for present consideration Secondly The Cares Lusts Thoughts Desires Fears and Apprehensions of things relating to this present World make a continual noise and hubbub in the hearts and inward parts of men and women generally So that in case any thing were spoken to the heart or inner man especially with a soft voice whilest these things are stirring in him it will not be heard or minded And therefore Thirdly The Holy Ghost being a Spirit of Wisdom will not speak at least ordinarily unto hearts so full of distractions and confusions Neither fourthly Do men that voluntarily make noise or suffer noises to be made about them desire to hear any man speak unto them Therefore fifthly and lastly It follows from these Premises that such persons who are earthly minded and continually filled with the Cares Lusts or Desires of this World are either in no capacity at all to hear or not at all care to hear any thing that the Spirit shall speak unto them Men that desire to hear the Spirit of God speaking in them must sequester and abstract themselves from the noise and tumults of this World For the voice of the Spirit of God in men that voice by which he suggests things in the Conscience is a still and low voice and therefore when men are in a hurry in their thoughts whilest the World is lifting up its voice within them there is no opportunity for him to speak When persons are full of the Cares of this Life and are making provision for the flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof there is no opportunity for the Spirit to declare himself to them or to shew them his secrets I will hearken what the Lord will speak saith the Psalmist Psal 85.8 They that will listen to this still voice of the Spirit must muse must have all quiet within them lay their ears close unto what shall be spoken They that do not thus hearken unto the Spirit of God that do not thus listen and keep a perfect calm in their Spirits are not likely to hear what the Spirit speaketh in them And yet in the fourth place there are another sort of men and women worse than these and these are they that resist the Spirit Ye have resisted the Holy Ghost c. Acts 7. where Stephen chargeth them with that grievous charge that they resisted the Holy Ghost when he was striving to do them good and to acquaint them with the mind of God with true holiness and waies leading to Salvation They resisted him i. e. fortified themselves against him cast about with their Minds and Reasons and Understandings how they might discover and take hold of any pretense why they should not submit unto such and such Counsels such Doctrines such Truths wherein the Holy Ghost did from time to time speak unto them By this means men are said to resist the Holy Ghost and there is a Generation of men and women amongst us who dash their foot at this stone of death who when the Spirit of God either in the Word or in the Counsel or Application of Christian Friends unto them or otherwise presenteth them with such and such truths of God which bear upon their Consciences making it evident that it is for their good that they should submit themselves in the course of their lives and waies unto them and perswading them to abandon such and such waies to cast from them all such works which are contrary to those truths and sayings of God They I say who are well aware of these motions and suggestions of the Spirit to them and yet turn their backs upon them are of this second or worser sort who because they are desperately unwilling to be led out of their old waies loth to drink New Wine saying the Old is better therefore they withstand the Spirit of God even when he cometh with power and is about to bind the Understandings of men that they might not be able to move Now he is not to be resisted in such cases but with a high hand of rebellion and there must be abundance of enmity and disobedience against him otherwise men would be led away in a blessed captivity unto Jesus Christ This is the reason why men whom God hath had much to do with who have lived under a mighty and powerful Ministry either they are overcome and prove the best and holiest of men or otherwise they must arm themselves with such weapons of Rebellion which will prove them to be the most vile and most desperate sinners in the World A fifth and last sort of Offenders are such who neglect to sow unto the Spirit Sect. 17 we use the Phrase of the Apostle Gal. 6.8 He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting We have opened heretofore what it is to sow to the Spirit It is to do such things to go forth in such waies and to be found frequent in such Actions and Practices which will turn to the praise and honour and glory of the Spirit of God and not only so but to do such things with an eye and intention that the Spirit of God should receive honour and reap praise by such their waies Now he properly soweth unto a man who doth intend that the man to whom he soweth should reap benefit thereby Even so a person is said to sow unto the Spirit of God who frequently is engaged in such waies and actions which he knows must of necessity turn unto the honour and praise of the Spirit of God Now if men and women shall rise up in their obedience unto God above the line and common road of the World if they shall walk in a more excellent way than their Neighbours more excellent than the common sort of Professors about them This must needs turn to the praise of the Spirit of God for the means by which they are advanced and gotten above their Neighbours and become more excellent than they this of course falleth and is ascribed by all to the honour and praise of the Spirit of God Men will conclude that surely the Spirit of God acteth and operateth in these men and teacheth them more excellent works and more heavenly curiosity than is found in the ordinary sort of men in the World Therefore they who refuse thus to sow unto the Spirit when the Spirit first soweth unto them that is when the Spirit suggesteth unto them and graciously stirreth up and tempteth their hearts and Consciences to do such Heroick Acts wherein there is a more than ordinary strain of goodness to be seen they do not consult the honour of the Spirit of God nor their own peace and enriching but on the contrary their own sorrow and poverty They I say that shall refuse thus to sow
that possesseth and filleth them with a windy confidence that they are the Children of God when indeed they are not because the Spirit of God is not wont to go forth nor to enter into the hearts and consciences of men but where the glorious Gospel of God is received in the truth of it We could instance in some particulars for there are as the Apostle telleth us 1 Cor. 8.5 in his daies in respect of Gods and Lords many that were Gods and Lords so called but saith he unto us there is but one c. So the truth is at this day there are amongst us and round about in this City and near to us Gospels many and Preachers many but in the mean time there is but one Gospel for us for those that know the truth as it is in Jesus And yet many of these Gospels we speak of have their spirits that do attend upon them and for the most part they do wait upon these very Gospels and Ministries that are the rankest of all others filling the Receivers of them with the greatest assurance and confidence that they are the Children of God and in the right way of worshipping and serving of him There is a Gospel which joyns Baptism with Faith in Christ by way of necessity to Justification and so to Salvation even as the Jewish Converts did Circumcision in the Apostles days of which Paul saith unto them Gal. 5.2 I say unto you if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing meaning if ye be Circumcised with an opinion of being justified thereby Christ shall profit you nothing There is another Gospel preached amongst us which teacheth you in effect and underhand yea by express and near-hand consequence that if you be elected how loosely wickedly prophanely and desperately soever ye shall live yet you are in no danger of perishing yea and that however you shall go to work God will bring you in one time or other and that he will so far change the state of affairs with you that you shall neither will nor chuse but to repent and so be saved together with several other Doctrines and Notions of like dangerous consequence and import Again thirdly Another Gospel so called ye have preached amongst you which calleth you from the Scriptures and the light of life which shineth there unto that which they call a light within them though that light be never so dark As if the Scriptures and the light within men so far as it is light and not darkness were at odds Or as if the conveying of Scripture light into the hearts and Judgments of men were like to obscure darken or obstruct and not rather to encrease brighten and perfect that light in men This kind of Gospel is of as dangerous consequence as any of the other A fourth Gospel preached abroad in the World is that all that ever will or shall be justified were justified from Eternity and that upon this account God seeth no sin in them Yea there is a Gospel which preacheth down all Preaching and denieth the usefulness thereof Many other Gospels there are so called in the World which though they be at great variance amongst themselves yet they all agree in enmity and opposition to the true Gospel of Christ like Sampson's Foxes But there is no end of enumerating these high and by kind of strains which men run into from day to day thinking thereby still to better their condition Godward As you find many in a lingring condition with sickness that think if they should but change into such a Room or into such a Bed they should be better So when men have not made a serious and consciencious improvement of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ whilest they did attend and live under the Ministry and Preaching of it but find themselves dissatisfied in their hearts and souls and not enjoying themselves upon terms of that content which they desire they think now that if they do but go forth into such other waies and walk in such other paths that then they shall be made great then they shall reign like Kings and Princes in the Profession of Jesus Christ Now the great Enemy of their Peace and of the Salvation of their souls lies in wait to meet with such occasions and advantages as these are and therefore if such Notions do but begin to bud and put forth in their first conceptions or that the hearts of men do but begin to hanker that way the Devil helps them with his perswasions to go on and then men are very apt to be perswaded that now the Spirit of God is come to them and that he doth procure them that great peace of God which they could never attain nor find from his hand before I cannot pass by that Expression though but lately handled in the Scriptures now opened 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it carrieth in it so pregnant a Testimony against that dangerous Doctrine which of late hath began to make head amongst us viz That the Holy Ghost is not God Now if it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit himself and not any other inferiour spirit subservient unto him who bears witness with the Spirits of the Saints all the World over that they are the Children of God then can he be no other than God himself who filleth all places with his presence Thus then we see a third thing Sect. 17 by means of which they that are filled with the Spirit must needs be possessed with an assurance of their attonement and peace made with God by Jesus Christ viz. they have the Spirit of Adoption within them testifying aloud and with authority with their spirits that they are the Children of God and consequently that their sins are fully attoned in his sight And this was the former particular of the two propounded by which men and women must needs be prepared and put into a rich capacity of enjoying free Communion with God We shall not need I suppose to add any thing to prove or shew that a clear assurance of a mans Attonement made with God opens an effectual door unto him for a free Communion with God This is lightsome and evident enough of it self especially if we take the word Attonement in a compleat signification I mean as it includes and carrieth with it grace and acceptation of a mans person with God For when God is actually reconciled unto a Creature and hath accepted an attonement for his sin He doth not only cease to be an Enemy unto him remaining still as a Stranger or as one from whose anger or displeasure the Person reconciled and attoned is indeed free but hath no further interest in him but upon this said reconciliation unto this Creature he becometh a most real Friend unto him and admits him into his special grace and favour Amongst men it is oft times otherwise a man doth not remain an Enemy after Attonement for that properly is imported in the word Attonement But
with some impressions or other of God's disapprobation or displeasure until the sinner hath recollected himself by repentance and sought the face of God Thus then we see that the testimony of a good conscience especially in conjunction with the assurance that a man's Attonement is made with God must needs invest him with a rich capacity of enjoying a free Communion with God If you ask Why shall a man 's not being condemned by his heart upon the terms specified give him a right or be a regular ground of boldness or confidence towards God I reply Because as fear of shame and punishment from God are the natural results of sin especially of sin against knowledge as we lately intimated So is expectation or hope of reward or countenance from God the natural result of Righteousness and Holiness neither can God himself separate between these things I mean Righteousness and hope of reward but only by such a kind of interposure by which he should separate heat from the fire or light from the Sun as God may in a miraculous way stand between the natural force of things as when time was he stood between the heat and the fire For Righteousness and Holiness are of that nature that he that shall put forth his heart and hand to do them doth in a natural way fill his heart with hope of reward and countenance from God See upon this account Psal 19.7 8 9 10 c. 2 Cor. 1.12 Heb. 10.19.20 c. This for the second particular found in those who are filled with the Spirit the testimony of a good conscience which must needs especially being joyned with the former assurance of a man's Attonement made with God compleat his capacity of enjoying free Communion with God That all those who are filled with the Spirit of God in the sense formerly declared cannot want the Testimony we have spoken of is I suppose so clear and manifest from the contents of what hath been formerly declared upon the Scripture in hand that I conceive it no waies necessary to insist upon any further proof of it But secondly To demonstrate Sect. 19 that a being filled with the Spirit doth yet further contribute to the raising our happiness in this present life by investing us with a capacity of enjoying Communion with God we added that it must needs invest us with a capacity of a large and plentiful Communion also Now a free Communion with God as was formerly in effect said imports a liberty or freedom from any troublesome tormenting or discouraging fears in our conversings with God and in our application of our selves unto him whether by way of Meditation or Contemplation of any of his glorious Attributes or Perfections or whether by Prayer or Request or whether by way of expectation or dependence upon him for matters relating to this life or that which is to come Now in any of these three works I do not remember any but what is reducible to one of these when a man or woman is at liberty and this upon good grounds to do all this without fear I still mean without any such fear which hath trouble pain or torment in it this I call a posture or capacity of a free Communion with God and this capacity we have already shewed and proved that alwaies it accompanies such a being filled with the Spirit as that unto which you have been exhorted Now as men and women filled with the Spirit are capable of such a Communion with God as this so are they by the same means and opportunity capable of an enlarged Communion with God They are in a condition of conversing with God in all the three kinds lately specified after a more large and ample manner and about more particulars and these more spiritual and secret and matters of a more high importance than they whose anointing with the Spirit is more sparing and low Now to help you a little to understand the difference a child of three or four years of age may probably be as free in his Communion with his Parents may go unto them and speak unto them and hear them speak again unto him with as little fear or trouble as his brother who is come to maturity of years and is a man grown But yet by reason that such a Childs understanding is at persent short and scant in comparison of his Brothers who understands the things and affairs of men which the Child doth not or but very weakly and imperfectly Therefore the Childs Communion with his Parents is not so large extends not to so many particulars of such weighty concernments as his elder Brothers Communion doth I make use of this Comparison only to explain the difference between that which I call free and that which I call a full or large Communion with God not to imply that he that is in a capacity of enjoying the one may be in no capacity of enjoying the other For it hath been already said that he that is filled with the Spirit is in a capacity of enjoying both This Proposition we have proved as to the former viz. A capacity in such persons of enjoying a free Communion with God we now go forward to the proof of the other viz. that the same persons are in a capacity of enjoying the other also an ample or large Communion with God in the sense lately opened To prove this there are only these two things to be taken into consideration and shewed First That a large knowledge of God of his Attributes and Perfections of his Counsels and Decrees and other things relating to him and recorded in his word doth invest men and women with a capacity of such an ample and large Communion with him which we speak of Secondly That he that is filled with the Spirit cannot lightly if possibly but be thus enlarged in the knowledge of God with the Attributes and Perfections of God For the first of these Sect. 20 That a large knowledge of God of his Attributes Perfections Counsels and Decrees must needs invest a person with a capacity of a large Communion with him may be proved thus Only by the way before we come to the proof by the knowledge of God in this place we do not mean simply a knowing i. e. a having in a man's memory or understanding that which is written in the Scriptures of God of his Attributes Counsels Decrees c. or a being able to argue and discourse of these in a rational way and to draw Conclusions and Consequences though never so clearly directly and substantially from them it is not such a knowledge as this that will qualifie men for that full and large Communion with God The reason hereof is because a man may have such a knowledge of God his Nature and Attributes and yet believe little or nothing at all of the truth of these things which in such a sense he knoweth As Aristotle speaking of young men in reference to the excellent Principles of Morality
and be able to draw inferences from them and to follow their guidance as far as they will lead them into many particulars concerning God This is the nature of Principles and general Grounds As there was a Wheel within a Wheel in Ezekiels Vision so there may be many Considerations many Propositions concerning God that may be wound up in one Expression or one direct Saying in Scripture For there are very many things requisite to be known and understood concerning God for the investing men and women with that capacity we speak of of enjoying a large Communion with God which are not literâ tenus or in so many words expressed in the Scriptures and yet they may be plainly enough delivered and held forth here For that may be truly and properly enough said to be plainly taught and delivered which with competent diligence study and meditation may be gathered from those things which are plainly and expresly taught and delivered As Solomon Prov. 8.9 speaketh concerning Instructions end Precepts of Wisdem as the former Translation reads the place They are all plain to him that will understand i. e. whose heart is set within him to understand them who is not negligent and loose minded to such things but is willing to enquire and find out the mind of God as Lavater well expoundeth the place so may it be said of those things concerning God which are necessary to be known and understood in order to that end and purpose we speak of And that of Solomon is true That the diligent hand maketh rich Prov. 10.4 as well in Spirituals as Temporals Now all these things of God which being known put a man into a capacity of a large Communion with God are not upon any such terms laid down in the Scriptures that if we shall but spare any small time or labour we may be as fully satisfied in them as if we had seen them face to face It is no where said in the Scripture in so many words that God in these operations and workings upon the hearts and souls of men by his Word and Spirit by which he intendeth to work Faith and Conversion is resistible resistible I mean in such a sense which imports a possibility in men so wrought upon never to be actually converted or brought to believe these operations of God notwithstanding This I say is not in these words nor any other Grammatically equipollent to them to be found in the Scriptures yet it is plainly enough taught and delivered there and this in several places from whence it may be duly and clearly collected as we have heretofore made apparent unto you So again that Christ died for me in particular for the Attonement of my sin or that God intended that Christ should die for me such Positions as these though they are no where in so many words delivered yet they are delivered plainly enough in Scripture and to much satisfaction so that every man may with a little consideration see them Thus then you see what manner of knowledge of God and of his Attributes and Counsels it is as well for the nature as for the Extent Compass or Degree which is required to qualifie men and women for this large Communion with God for the nature and quality of it it must be a knowledge accompanied with a through belief of God and his Attributes for the extent or compass a knowledge which is somewhat comprehensive both concerning God his Nature Counsels and Decrees c. Now that such a knowledge of God as this must needs prepare and make men capable of a large Communion with him is evident upon this consideration viz. Communion cannot well extend further than there is a mutual knowledge of the one and of the other How can two walk together unless there be some agreement in Principles It was the Saying of Achish King of the Philistines 1 Sam. 21.15 Have I any need of mad men When his Servant brought David before him his meaning was that he could not tell well what to do with him or how to speak to him or what to imploy him about And Solomon Eccl. 5.4 speaking to the same purpose concerning God saith That he hath no delight in Fools Men that have no knowledge of God nor of his Attributes c. are like unto stocks and stones they are not at all capable of that Communion which we now speak of So likewise men and women who have but a scant knowledge of God it may be ten parts of twelve dark and but two light so far as they are ignorant their Communion with God will be obstructed and hindred and consequently their Communion with God if any at all will be very narrow and contracted I suppose we shall not need to spend time in proving Sect. 22 that those who are filled with the Spirit must needs be enlarged in the knowledge of God and much more in the belief of the truth and certainty of those things which being truly apprehended and known concerning him render them capable of this large Communion with him Where the Spirit abideth with such a fulness of his Presence he will enlighten and open the darkness of the hearts of men and will scatter that ignorance which otherwise is likely to darken them Therefore we shall pass by that enough having been argued already only a word or two to open unto you the rich and glorious accommodation which the capacity of such a free and large Communion with God as we have insisted on must needs be conceived to be unto those that are invested with it or made partakers of it although the truth is that the transcendent worth and excellency of the Priviledge we speak of is near enough at hand to be apprehended and understood by all men without the help of any discourse For shall not the joy which the Apostle Peter dignifieth with those two high Titles Unspeakable and Glorious shall not this attend a free and large Communion with God It is mentioned by our Saviour as one of the richest strains of felicity that the Elect Angels are partakers of that they stand before their heavenly Father and behold his face continually i. e. they stand before him like unto Princes undaunted unappaled they have a free and large Communion with God But that flesh and bloud the poor Children of men should arrive unto such a state and condition as to have part and fellowship with them in this their happiness and felicity is certainly a transcendent priviledge unto them It was a Reply that an old Philosopher made to a Tyrant a great Prince who asked him what good he had gotten by the study of Philosophy Why saith he I have gotten this that I can talk with the greatest Tyrant in the World without being afraid of him Now if this be a desirable thing that a man can look the greatest and proudest man in the face without being dismayed or afraid What is it for a poor Creature cloathed with flesh and
filled with the Spirit must needs have a rich and large interest with God in respect of prevailing with him by Prayer and carrying matters of greatest and highest importance at the Throne of Grace First then to shew and prove this That Persons filled with the Spirit of God cannot but be great in their interest with God Secondly That such a greatness of Interest in God especially being accompanied with the other three Priviledges formerly opened and asserted cannot but compleat the felicity and desirableness of the life of a man or woman in this World First The Reason why they who are filled with the Spirit must needs be great in the sight of God and carry things with an high hand at the Throne of Grace is that which heretofore we have proved at large viz. because such persons are men after Gods own heart the Character which God himself gave of David i. e. as himself explaineth the said Character persons that will fulfill all his pleasure meaning as concerning themselves or so far as it concerns them or as they are in a capacity to fulfil it they will make the most that can be made by men in their Cloaths as we use to say of the Interest of God and of Jesus Christ in the World This same activeness and spiritfulness in the service of God is one of the most natural constant and visible fruits and effects of any man or womans being filled with the Spirit of God For when the soul or inward part of a man is filled with the Spirit it cannot contain it self and the issuings and breathings of it out are nothing else but excellent and high actings for God a fruitfulness of life and conversation This is as natural and genuine fruit of mens being filled with the Spirit as the Fig is the natural fruit of the Fig-tree and the Grape the natural fruit of the Vine For the nature of the Spirit of God is to glorifie God that is to be serviceable unto his ends purposes and desires in the World And therefore according to that true Rule in Philosophy every Agent seeketh to assimilate his Patient unto himself So the Spirit of God where he is in his fulness he maketh men lively and vigorous he putteth it into them and draweth them on unto waies of Excellency and giveth them no rest but is still exciting of them unto the serving of God But this Point we have argued formerly and evinced the truth of the thing from the Scriptures above all contradictions That which we have now to do is to shew and prove that those who are diligent and faithful and zealous observers of the Precepts of God and are free in laying out themselves upon the account of his interest and glory are Persons that have his ear as we use to say and who for the asking may obtain any thing with reason and with righteousness at his hands and the Persons we now speak of are not apt or wont to ask any thing upon other terms But that which we now deliver is abundantly delivered by God himself unto you in the Scriptures namely that Persons who are full of action for God have large quarter at the Throne of Grace and carry matters of high import with God and that with an high hand We have several passages in Scriptures to consult with 1 Joh. 3.22 Sect. 2 And whatsoever we ask we receive of him c. It is put in the Present Tense as it is very usual after the manner of Prophetical Dialect to speak of things that be Future in the Present Tense or as being present by reason of the truth and certainty of the things that are spoken So here Whatsoever we ask we receive i. e. are as certain that we shall receive it as if we had it already whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandments Here is the ground-work because they observed them The word is very emphatical signifying both the inward respect that men have of them in their minds memories and consciences and also the external action arising out of this not only because we keep his Commandments but likewise because we do those things that are pleasing in his sight He implies that men may keep the Commandments of God and yet may not do the things that are pleasing in his sight For there is as we have had occasion heretofore to distinguish a difference between the keeping of the Letter of the Precepts or Commands of God and the carrying on of those Commands to such an observance of them which include many particulars which indeed commends our obedience unto God yet are not in the Letter or surface of the Command Now Prayer though it should be with the greatest earnestness performed or with the greatest Faith and Confidence yet if it be not the Prayer of a righteous man the Promise of prevailing much would not belong to it So here to ask a thing according to the Will of God doth not only include a praying righteously in respect of the matter and also in the manner but also such Conditions and Qualifications which according to the Will of God ought to be found in those that should pray amongst which Qualifications this is one that they be men and women ready and free to do such things which are pleasing to God not simply and barely to do his Commands but to do those things which are pleasing unto him Mat. 21.22 All things whatsoever ye shall ask in Prayer believing ye shall receive This word believing is very comprehensive and it doth include in it all things that are requisite and necessary for the reducing of this Prayer unto this posture that is unto a receiving posture Now certain it is no man can have that confidence which John speaks of towards God or that believing to receive whatsoever he shall ask in Prayer which our Saviour speaks of but only he who is conscious to himself of his faithfulness to God and of his integrity and uprightness in his waies For my Brethren if the Consciences of men and women shall reprove them of any looseness or lightness of spirit or that they have served God by halves that they have been off and on with him in their practice and negligent in making use of such advantages and opportunities for the glorifying of his name which he hath put into their hands this will be like a Bridle in the Lips of mens Faith there will be fears and jealousies and inward doubtings within them Whereas if our hearts shall bear a rich Testimony unto us which they will never do unless we shall be under such a frame of spirit to do the things that are pleasing in his sight that we have walked before him in all uprightness then will our Faith and Confidence be steady and we may pray with the greatest assurance that we shall receive whatsoever we ask of God And so again Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock
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
an activeness for God but only theirs who are filled with the Spirit of God what course soever they may take otherwise Now the truth is that both these in effect and by clearness of consequence have been proved already The former in those discussions wherein we made it appear that every of the said four Priviledges were respectively the natural and proper fruits and consequences of the signal intergrity of mens hearts and waies in the sight of God The latter in those passages wherein in like manner we evinced such an integrity of heart and life before God to be the genuine and appropriate effect of a being filled with the Spirit Therefore we shall here only vindicate and clear those discussions and passages from such difficulties or objections which may seem to encumber them and to weaken the truth or authority of them First then That men may attain to a freedom from all troublesome and tormenting cares and fears and whatever of this nature is apt to render the life of a man less comfortable less desirable without any such high engagements for God as were spoken of and so consequently without being filled with the Spirit appears from hence that many Heathen Philosophers and Wise men especially of the Sect of the Stoicks by study and dealing with themselves and their hearts effectually from such Principles and Considerations as the light of Nature afforded them did attain this atchievement they did absolutely deliver themselves from that bondage and subjection we speak of and did live in a constant tranquillity and serenity of mind and thoughts and did not feel any pricking Thorne or grieving Brier of any troublesome passion Yea more generally they of the Schole and Sect of Epicurus lived free from all cares and fears yea there are many amongst our selves who as our Proverb expresseth it set Cock on hoop and as they put the evil day far from them so together herewith they put away all care fear and all troublesome thoughts to the same distance therefore it seems at least one of the four Priviledges wherein you placed the desirableness of a mans life and condition in this World viz. a freedom from all troublesome and tormenting fears and cares may be obtained and enjoyed without a being filled with the Spirit I reply first concerning Heathen Philosophers these things First That as Painters use to do very frequently viz. flatter and give beauty and comliness in the artificial face where they are wanting in the natural So many Historians when they have a person of note or worth or of any great name to represent or describe they do not so much set or bend themselves to inform the Reader of the truth of things concerning them as to shew the rareness of their own genius and parts by making them the most accomplished persons in the World As Sophocles the Tragedian made reply to him who demanded a reason why contrary to his Fellow Euripides he made all Women that he personated in his Tragedies so excellently vertuous and good I saith he represent them such as they should be In like manner we have great cause to suspect that they who have reported such glorious things of some Philosophers and others worthy men like enough in their Sphere rather represented and reported them such as they should have been than such as they were as Paterculus a Roman Historian speaking of Cato saith of him that he was Virtuti similimus qui rectè nunquam fecit ut facere videretur sed quia aliter facere non poterat He was a man most like unto virtue it self who never did that which was right that he might appear to do it but because he could not do otherwise as if he were a man unchangeably perfect and good After some other high Characters of commendation he saith of him that he was Homo omnibus humanis vitiis immunis A man that was far from the insirmities of a man with more of the same strain Yet that which the same Author reports of Scipio Aemylianus is much more viz. That he was a man Qui nunquam nisi laudandum aut fecit aut dixit aut sensit who all his life long never spake nor did nor thought any thing but that which was good And elsewhere this is said of another Solem faâ—ilius e Coelo dimovendum c. That it was a more easie matter to turn the Sun out of his way than to turn him Therefore we are not bound to believe all that we have received by Tradition concerning the high Strains and Heroick attainments and Enjoyments of Heathen Philosophers and others famous for virtue although on the other hand there is little question to be made but that there were many of excellent Principles and deportments amongst them and such who shall rise up in Judgment against the common sort of Professors of Christianity amongst us and condemn them However there is no certainty of any such thing as absolute freedom from cares and fears enjoyed by and of them as that pretended in the Objection Secondly Suppose that as far as an estimate can be made Sect. 8 either by some passages of speech or discourse upon occasion uttered by some of them or else by many Sayings yet found in their Writings that they did some of them enjoy such a Priviledge as a freedom from cares and fears c. yet such an estimate as this is far from certainty or infallibility Though we should hear them utter sayings or speak of their security like that of Angels it doth not follow that they spaâ—e truth For as Aristotle speaking of many excellent Principles of Temperance and Sobriety saith of young men that they use to speak and discourse of these things but do not believe them In like manner men of Learning and Parts may hammer out many excellent Sayings and Strains of a very high nature and yet not believe them themselves David sometimes indeed said I believed and therefore I spake Psal 116.10 but the truth is that men may and frequently do speak and utter many things which they do not believe Our English Story reports of one John Cremâ—nsis who was sent over by the Pope to perswade the Priests from Marrying that the very next night after he had delivered his Message and in an eloquent Oration commended Chastity to the Clergy he was found in Adultery So that it is no great matter for men to write excellent things to talk of freedom from fears and cares but to get this into the heart and to make this real is another manner of thing Thirdly and lastly Though some of those we speak of might seem to enjoy such a Priviledge as that formerly described of a dreadless and fearless mind whilest either they were free from danger or under the arrest of some evil more tolerable and more easie to be born yet when they came to encounter with the King of Fears viz. Death their inward security and height of confidence and resolution was much
this while here is a fit opportunity for the Spirit of God to joyn himself with those persons and carry them on from lesser light to greater It is for his glory to delight in such persons who make much of his motions They that will but mind his beginnings and his first breathings into their hearts and souls he will presently cause them to take up a new Lesson and will still carry them forward and cause them to know things more considerable Now then put the case that this was the state of any of them that they did attain unto any such Spirit to be above fears and dread this might be by means of the Spirit of God which might be a kind of fulness of the Spirit in them If it be objected Sect. 10 But the Heathen are said to be without God in the World Eph. 2.12 To this I reply It is true to speak of the body and bulk of the Heathen they were indeed without God in the World this was the state of the generality of them yet notwithstanding the same Apostle saith that they knew God Rom. 1.21 2.14.15 and that they were a Law unto themselves Now look to what degree they did those things by the Law and light of Nature that they would have done in case they had had the written Law to that degree they were a Law unto themselves and their Consciences either excused or accused them accordingly Now it is usual to speak some things of a Body or People in the general which cannot belong or be applied to every individual or particular person As when Christ crucified is said to be unto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Gentiles foolishness 1 Cor. 1.23 it must be understood that he speaks only of the generality of them for the Apostle explains himself But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks we preach Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God So that that which the Scriptures speak concerning the Gentiles is not to be applied unto every particular but only to the generality of them Concerning persons whether they bear the name of Christians or no who by means of debauched Principles and Practices by following Lusts and Pleasures unsatiably seem to have contracted or gained a freedom from fears and tormenting cares the truth is that for the most part they are not Inheritors or in possession of any such freedom it is but a Copy of their countenance under this kind of practice There is a Worm that lies gnawing them that ever and anon doth sting and bite them even in the greatest heat of their jollity they are often stung The Wiseman says Prov. 14.13 that even in laughter the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness The end of foolish and vain jollity is heaviness and not only so but many times it breaks out even in the midst of it and comes upon them as the pains of a woman with Child which plainly shews that their fearlesness of spirit is not of that kind which we speak of These waies and courses of pleasure bring but a false kind of joy for their disease all this while lies hid within them festering And so men may cause these kinds of fears to be allayed by this kind of mirth and jollity as men may lay mud upon a Fountain but after a while the Spring will make its way So will the Conscience be as a Spring of sorrow and trouble the Conscience will work thorough and thorough though they should lay on one kind of Pleasure after another yea though they should lay on never so much and it will appear in due time that these men are far from being partakers with the Saints of God in that great and blessed Priviledge of being fearless and dreadless So that we see that that fearlesness of spirit which we have argued for is an appropriate effect of our being filled with the Spirit God And though there be some counterfeits of it in some other persons who are not full of this Spirit of God yet if you take the Priviledge as we described it take it in the richness of it and in the truth and reality of it take it as being raised upon good grounds that it be not baffled with any thing that shall rise up against it thus it is only the effect of such a signal Righteousness as we speak of and some other answerable effects of a being filled with the Spirit Now as the case is in this Priviledge Sect. 11 so there is the same reason of all the other three particulars namely that a Creature cannot invest himself in them but only by that course we have spoken of Joy and Peace a setled Peace an excellent strain of Joy cannot be attained by any other person but only by him who is more excellent than his Neighbour this is the natural result and product of an excellent course and strain of Righteousness and Obedience unto the Command of God And if men shall attempt to raise it in themselves in any other way or by any other means they will be disappointed for this kind of fruit grows from no other Tree whatsoever it ariseth only from an enlargement of the Creature towards his God And the truth is that which is found in many men and which in the Language of some is termed joy is but a kind of degenerate joy There may be joy so called but that which is joy indeed is a quite different thing from it It was the saying of an Heathen Philosopher and it is a very true Saying that true joy is a severe thing and for the maintaining of it it requireth much watchfulness of them that are the Subjects thereof they must not turn aside to do any thing that is unworthy of it Now therefore when men are light and loose in their words and actions carried away by that contentment which is in sin there is nothing of reality in their joy You may find out some other name for it or if you will you may call it Joy but there is nothing of the nature or of the substance of this joy in it which is unspeakable and glorious and so concerning that other particular a capacity of enjoying a free and large Communion with God This cannot arise in any mans heart without the Spirit of God who can fill men with the knowledge of God and impart and communicate the secrets of God accordingly Who knoweth the things of God but the Spirit of God and he to whom the Spirit will reveal them And our Saviour saith no man knoweth the things of God but only the Son no man knows them without manifestation and discovery of them by him As Horse and Mule and other Creatures do not nor cannot understand the things of a man because they have no Communion with him in his Principles of Reason and understanding In like manner neither are men capable of the things of God further than himself doth manifest
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
mutter their lives and doings speak their Faith but brokenly and indistinctly they do but whisper so that the generality of men can understand but little of what they say in this kind They speak in their way as men that were jealous and half afraid least in time they should or might be discovered to speak untruth when they say they believe in Jesus Christ Such a broken intricate and uncertain account as this given by men unto the World that they believe in Jesus Christ doth no great service unto the World For all such a restimony or assertion of these mens believing in Christ the World will be at liberty and find it self loose enough from being perswaded or convinced that such men do in deed and in truth believe in him And whilst they remain at liberty in this kind they are but where they were the Faith of a person made known but by halves hath but a weak influence but a faint operation upon men being like unto a Trumpet that gives an uncertain sound upon which no man prepares unto the battel as the Apostle speaketh But now he that shall speak out shall speak plainly and without a Parable that shall with authority give or rather make the World to know that he doth really and in truth believe on Christ he will do some worthy execution upon them he will make work to some purpose in the hearts and consciences of men Such a testimony will cause men to awake out of their sleep and stand up from the dead and so prepare and put them in an immediate capacity of receiving the light of life from Christ Eph. 5.14 We know there is an attracting an encouraging Sect. 2 and provoking force in Example to the similitude and likeness of actions yea and sometimes to the similitude of passions or of sufferings also at least to the adventure making of like suffering as Paul said Many waxed confident by his bonds and suffering Phil. 1.14 and were hereby much more bold to speak the Word without fear For seeing Paul make no more of his bonds than he did they began to think that suffering persecution for the Gospel was no very great matter Therefore now they also would preach the Word confidently and with all boldness as he had done In like manner when men shall see the World neglected trodden and trampled upon by a person believing in Jesus Christ by means of this his believing and shall behold this person raised in his spirit enlarged in his comforts and enjoyments with the World under his feet the sight of such an example as this will provoke them also to trample the World under their feet likewise Your Zeal saith the Apostle speaking of their great forwardness and alacrity in contributing towards the necessities of the poor Saints 2 Cor. 9.2 hath provoked very many viz. in the same kind to the like bounty and liberality And yet we know men are as hard as unlikely to be provoked by examples in this kind I mean to part with their money as by any other kind of example whatsoever In like manner the zeal of any man in believing in Jesus Christ being made visible unto men by such deportments and actions which can in reason or in the judgment of conscience have no other root to bear them but this the zeal I say of such a Believer may set the whole World on fire round about him and provoke many to do likewise Abraham may very probably be thought to have the spirit of this glory cast upon him to be stiled the Father of Believers because his notable Example was in the nature and proper tendency of it so generative so apt and likely to replenish and fill the World with a generation of Believers And the Apostle Heb. 12.1 brings a cloud of Witnesses to this very end unto those to whom he writes viz. to encourage strengthen and provoke them to believing yet more and more and to continue believing unto the end So then this is one Reason which plainly demonstrates an Obligation lying upon every man to be a signal Benefactor unto the world viz. That he stands obliged by command from God to believe in Jesus Christ and not only this but to compel the World to know that he deth indeed thus believe He that shall do this shall lift up his hand on high to bless the Generation of the Sons and Daughters of men amongst whom he converseth and shall take a course to open a door unto them to become the Sons and Daughters of God by believing likewise and consequently to become happy and blessed for ever And because of this notable efficacy and potent tendency which a man's Faith in Christ demonstratively asserted by life and waies appropriate to it hath to bless the World by drawing men into Communion in the same course of engagement with him the Lord Christ hath I conceive imposed it in the nature of a spiritual Assessment on every man and woman in the World that believeth namely that they make Profession of this their Belief in the Face of the World that so the World may be made to know that they believe yea and hath included it in the same act by which Salvation it self is granted unto believers Thus Rom. 10.9 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart c. Now because Confession is one way by which the Faith of men may be made known to the World therefore doth he impose by way of Tax the Confession of the mouth his meaning is as Expositors generally understand it the whole life and conversation He that believes and is baptized shall be saved Here he joyns faith or believing and profession together and insures Salvation upon both Baptism or to be baptized in those daies especially was as it were the first born of their profession of Faith in Jesus Christ And therefore I take it to be an assertion that is to be understood figuratively or syneedochically viz. for a solemn or serious Profession of their Faith He that believeth and is baptized that is he that believeth and shall let the World know that he believeth such a man shall be saved So Mat. 10.32 He that confesseth me before men him will I confess c. So that we still find that upon mens Believing or upon their Conversion they have had some such spiritual imposition as this laid upon them viz. to be helpful to others When thou art converted strengthen thy Brethreu So behave thy self that this Conversion of thine may efficaciously tend unto the Conversion or Confirmation of others And so David knew what his duty was what was imposed upon him when as God should restore unto him the joy of his salvation Psal 51 13. Then saith he shall I teach transgressers the way and sinners shall be converted unto thee As if he had said I know the task that is laid by the hand of the Righteousness of Heaven upon me namely that
arguing of this great Controversie might have been better spent in arguing other things they suppose that these kind of notions are not so affecting unto the hearts of men neither do they tend unto the establishing of them nor are so proper for the building of men up in their most holy Faith nor so powerful to excite unto Action But the truth is my Brethren though such discourses as these and the laying out of such things for substance as these are though they do not so much stir the heart as some other subjects may and might have done yet nevertheless these have somewhat which will make you unmovable in the waies of Christ And if this be but duly cast up by you you will find it every way as profitable unto you it will amount to every whit as great a sum of comfort and of peace as those Sermons whose property is to quicken and work upon men at present For what will it avail you if you should be carried up into the Heavens one day by a Sermon full of affection and another day a deceiver cometh and layeth a stumbling block in the way and should make you call in question and drive you quite off from these great Truths of the Godhead of Christ and of the Holy Ghost I am very confident that few of you that have heard me in this question but know that there are many young men that are able to puzle you and to put you to such a stand in these great Principles of Religion that you would not otherwise be able to vindicate your selves nor your credit nor deliver your Judgments from their snares and entanglements And whereas it is objected and supposed by some Sect. 20 that such Sermons as these are sublime mysteries and that the secrets of the Trinity discoursed do not furnish Christian men and women Masters of Families with matter for repetition in the Evening of the day to their Families To this I answer briefly in a word That it is to be presumed that you that have been Professors so long as generally you have been are able of your selves out of your own Treasure to speak things that are most commodious and fitting to be spoken unto your Servants and especially unto your Children and not alwaies to expect from the publick Minister matters for your private Families Strong men desire strong meat and milk is not nourishment for them to make them grow to any considerable degree But for Babes and Sucklings that are not grown in their spiritual stature things indeed of a lower nature and of a more easie apprehension are meet and very fit So that there is no reason to desire or expect this that you should never hear from a publick Minister nothing but that which is meet and convenient for you to preach over at home No you must be provided from your selves and out of your own for such occasions otherwise you must resolve never to thrive and grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ but alwaies to stand at the same stay And of how dangerous a consequence it is that in this case you should have your desires viz. That from time to time the first rudiments only of Religion should still be discussed in your hearing do but consider this one place Heb. 6.1 2 3. Therefore leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ the Doctrine of Baptisms c. And this will we do if God permit What is that Go on to perfection That is carry on your Judgments to the most mysterious things of God But mark now upon what ground it is that he resolveth upon this that this he would do and desires them to go along with him For saith he it is impossible for those who were once enlightned c. How doth this Motive hang upon this Exhortation or Admonition Doubtless thus that when Christians shall come to this pass that this shall be the temper and state and present frame of their hearts that they care to go no further nor to understand no more in the Mystery of their Profession this is a certain or at least a dangerous sign that they are in a condition near to that of falling away and relapsing from those very principles and foundations themselves which they had embraced And if you will but consider how it is in the course of nature you shall observe that it is the nature of every Creature to advance and go on still to move and to wax But whensoever this Creature cometh to a stand and goeth no further evermore the next motion is to relapse The Sun in the Firmament of Heaven when he comes to his Meridian and can rise no higher begins immediately to decline towards his setting The Waters wax and flow and encrease but ever when it is standing water then is the reflux in a short time it altereth its course backwards from whence it came Just thus is it in this great and important business of your Souls and of your Eternal Peace it is well with you so long as you are growing and gathering so long you are in a safe condition and out of danger of falling away But when you come once to such a pass that you desire to rise no higher it is a thousand to one but that the next news that will be heard will be that you will begin to decline and lose ground and to fall back again into your former ignorance and unto the love of the World and something which is of an utter inconsistency with your Salvation CHAP. IX The Second Question propounded namely How or by what means a Believer or any other Person may be filled with the Spirit of God Some difficulties removed with one direction propounded and largely discoursed whereby men and women may understand the intent of the Exhortation and what it is that is required of them when they are commanded to be filled with the Spirit VVherein also the Grace of God and the free working of his Spirit is clearly vindicated and asserted HAving formerly finished the Demonstration and proof of the truth of the Doctrine for the clearer understanding it Sect. 1 and making better way to the Use and Application we propounded three Questions to be taken into consideration and resolved the Questions were these First Who or what kind or manner of Spirit it is of whom both the Text and Doctrine speaks and particularly whether a finite and created Spirit or an infinite and uncreated Spirit God himself We have stood somewhat the longer upon the debate and arguing of this Question partly because of the great weight and importance of the truth lying either on the one hand of it or on the other partly also because there is a Spirit lately after a long banishmen and silence come forth again into the World and is now at work amongst us which opposeth with might and main that part of this Question where the truth heth as I trust we have made manifests and denieth the