highth of admiration they manifested to the World the frequent effusion of the Spirit upon themselves the communicating of it to others by praying preaching and laying on of hands whereby evil Spirits became subject to them that they prevailed over the Devil and his deluding Oracles whose Tongues they silenc'd whose Forgeries they discover'd whose Favorites they strangely and in a moment struck dead and restrained the malice and fury of Lucifer himself Were these the effects of any other power than the Spirit of the Lord Was it ever heard that a meer Mortal was able to do the like to alter the course of Nature and produce effects directly contrary to the production of natural causes Is it within the power of the Mighty or can the Devils themselves bring it to pass No It requires an Omnipotent arm no less than that which created the World and setled the particular Beings therein to change their courses to alter their natures to work not onely with slender and unlikely means but without and against all probable methods certainly none but the Spirit of the Almighty can do thus When therefore the power of working Miracles is the alone work of a Deity and such remarkable instances were plainly manifest by Christ and his Apostles to discover the Divinity and procure the belief of his Doctrine it 's a plain Argument that that extraordinary power with which they were invested was on purpose designed to discard the Devil and confront his Power because that Doctrine which was confirmed by them is directly contrary to the designes and projects of that evil Spirit Secondly By its continual influence upon the Understanding and Wills of men to enable them to resist the Devil and overcome his Temptations Though the Doctrine of the Gospel had such an undeniable Evidence as the Power of Miracles to ascertain the truth and verity of it that one would think no man which believes the matter of fact that such miracles were wrought should doubt of the truth or question the divine Authority of the Christian Religion and consequently would soon resigne up their Understanding to the obedience of Faith to be governed by the Laws of that divine Institution yet he that considers how little men regard the Authority of that divine Testimony and consider the excellency of the Gospel discovery and how careless men are to be strict and serious in their Conversations and how soon debauched by the most easie Temptation who profess to believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and assent to his Doctrine as infallibly true will soon perceive the necessity of some supernatural assistance to bring the hearts of men to the love and their lives to the practice of all necessary truths contained therein over and above that miraculous diffusion at the first delivery and preaching of it And blessed be the Name of God such is the large and plentiful effusion of divine Grace now under the dispensation of the Gospel that 't is always ready at hand to assist the spirits of men in all religious purposes and holy undertakings Joh. 14.26.16 And in several places of the Gospel the Spirit is promised to the devout and humble petitions of honest Christians Luke 11.13 Joh. 16.23.26 So that the most degenerate Soul that does but seriously apply his mind to fear God and keep his Commandments will find such continual assistance from the blessed spirit of Grace as will enable him to mortifie his own Corruption to quench the fiery darts of the Devil to vanquish all oppositions in the way to Goodness and with ease and pleasure to do the Will of God For this very purpose the Son of God intercedes with his Father and presents our Prayers to the Throne of Grace by vertue of his own intercession that the Promise of the Holy Ghost may be continued to his Church to the end of the world to sanctifie the hearts of his People and to fill their Souls with all those graces that accompany Salvation to enlighten the Understanding to convince the Judgment to awaken the Consciences of men that they may believe and consider the great and weighty Principles of Religion and be preserved from all false Doctrine Heresies and Schisms to press upon their consideration the folly and unreasonableness of sin with the dreadful consequences of a wicked life the excellency of true Religion and Goodness with the blessed effects of a vertuous Conversation that men may be perswaded to depart from evil and do good to remove the obstinacy and perverseness that is natural to fallen man that their Spirits may become pliable and submissive to the providential dealings of God respective and obedient to the Laws and Constitutions of Heaven and entirely devoted to his Will and Pleasure to confirm their Faith increase their Integrity to assist them against Temptations to support them with patience under afflictions to compleat their Charity to perfect their Repentance and to enable them by Promises Encouragements and Gifts to suffer for the Lord Jesus and the profession of the Gospel if called to it All this and much more is the Promise of the Father to purchase of the Son of God and the gift of them both to give the holy Spirit to the Church first to sanctifie and make it good Gal. 5.22 1 Thess 5.23 then to preserve it spotless and unblamable to the coming of the Lord. These are the principal means invented by the Wisdom of God to take away the sins of the world to destroy the works of the devil and in infinite mercy presented to mankind by his onely begotten Son to deliver them from the power of darkness and by turning them away from their iniquities to translate them into the kingdom of his dear Son And what can the wit of man conceive what doth the weakness of men want as farther needful to promote and carry on this blessed and glorious designe What could God have done more to subvert the power of the Devil and to reconcile Mankind to himself If he had raised up some mighty Prophet in the World and furnished him with the Inspiration of the Almighty that he had spoken as one having Authority and commended his Message to us in the Name of the Lord we should certainly have received him in the Name of a Prophet or if an Angel had descended from Heaven and appeared visibly to us Mortals and delivered his Embassage to us in a Seraphick manner and backt it with Reasons clear as his Angelical nature we should certainly have admired the goodness of God and acknowledged our selves obliged to so gracious a Dispensation But that God himself should descend from those Regions above into this dark and dismal World become one like us one of us and so in a way agreeable to our humane capacities deliver us the Records of Heaven tell us the terms on which our Eternity depends assure us upon his undoubted Veracity that upon our obedience or disobedience to them Heaven or Hell Life
recompence of reward which God hath prepared for those that love and serve him Heb. 11.39 40. Thirdly To this purpose that divine Oeconomy which according to the Sanctions of the Gospel is administred in the Christian Church was instituted by the Son of God That the Ministers of the Gospel as opportunity serves and necessity requires administer the sacred Rites of the Christian Religion in the Church of God Mat. 28.19 by baptizing such as are duly disposed for that solemn Ordinance that thereby they may be listed into the service of Christ and by that religious Sacrament be obliged to fight manfully under his Banner against the World Luke 22.19 20 the Flesh and the Devil And distribute the Holy Communion to those pious and humble Souls that are religiously disposed to celebrate the honour of God in that sacred Institution that they may be encouraged to quench the fiery darts of the devil and have grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear To them 't is commanded to solemnize the Worship of God in publick Mat. 10.12 13 1 Tim. 2.1 2. either as Priests to wait at the Altar of the Lord to intercede with his Majesty in the behalf of his people and to present in their stead Prayers and Supplications and Thanksgivings to him or as Embassadors to treat with the People in the business of Religion Mat. 28.20 2 Cor. 5.20 and reveal the Will of God unto them to explain and confirm to their Understandings the Principles of Christianity to represent to their Judgment and Reason the vileness of sin and the reasonableness of Gods service that men may be reclaimed from their sinful and wicked ways and become a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God But when sinners are obstinate and hard to be entreated the Censures of the Church are put into their hands to exercise the power of the Keys in punishing the pertinacious and casting them out of the Church that they may be brought to a just and lively apprehension of their sins and from the Judgment of God executed upon them by his Ministers in the Church be perswaded to reform and amend their lives that they may not fall into the hands of divine Justice in the World to come and so upon sufficient Evidence of their Repentance receive Absolution be dissolved from the Bonds of Satan and admitted into the bosome of the Church again For this power our Lord and Master committed to his Apostles and in them to the succeeding Governours of the Church Mat. 18.18 Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Which Commission was renewed again after his Resurrection when he breathed on them the Holy Ghost Joh. 20.22 23. These are the principal means delivered in the Gospel and instituted by the Son of God to deliver men from the dominion of sin and Satan and thereby to destroy the works of the Devil by taking men off from the love and practice of sin 4. From the mission and descent of the Holy Ghost into the World where divine Inspiration is in two respects very remarkable to take away and the sins of the World and to promote the service and honour of God First By enduing the Son of God and his holy Apostles with power from above whereby they were enabled to confirm and ratifie the truth of the Christian Doctrine by the working of Miracles If Christ had not done those works which no other person did he would not for in truth he could not have obliged mankind to believe and obey it which is the proper import and meaning of our Saviour's expression Joh. 15.24 'T was therefore extreamly necessary that he should manifest the Divinity of his person and confirm the truth of the Gospel by such signal Testimonies as were uncontrolable And such was his infinite Wisdom and Power that while he was conversant among men he gave the World all the satisfaction that was possible that he came from God when he wrought such miraculous works as were never heard of from the beginning of the World presented them boldly to all Spectators and committed the tryal of their reality to the test of their sences which was an infallible evidence that the spirit of the Lord was upon him and the power of God had overshadowed him Heb. 9.14 Rom. 8.11 But because he was mightily declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead as through the eternal spirit he offered himself to God so by the mighty assistance of the same holy Spirit he arose again from the dead and continues alive for ever And because he committed the promulgation of the Gospel to his Apostles whom he sent as Embassadours to preach Salvation to the World and exhort sinners to be reconciled to God the powers of the Holy Ghost was indispensably requisite to inform their Understandings with the Mind of God to reveal the sacred Mysteries of Religion clearly to their apprehensions that they be assured of their heavenly Call to the divine Employment therefore they had apparitions of Angels and received the Bath-col voices from Heaven So St. Paul by a most miraculous Light from Heaven is stricken down to the Earth and called to the Apostleship Acts 9. Hereupon he became so serious and earnest to assert both his Calling and Gospel to descend from Heaven Gal. 1.1 Paul an Apostle not of men neither by men but by Jesus Christ and God the Father They had extatical Visions Peter was in a Trance Paul wrapt up to the third Heavens They had monitory Dreams and Impulses from the Spirit by all which they had a full assurance of the Divinity of their Message and the truth of their Call to the Apostleship But 't was equally necessary for the Conviction of the Unbelieving World that they should confirm the divine Authority of these things by sufficient external Arguments therefore they were endued with the gift of Tongues and the power of working Miracles when according to the promise of our Lord the Holy Ghost descended from Heaven upon a full Assembly as they were met together to solemnize the Worship of God Acts 2. that they began to speak with other Tongues and to utter divers sorts of Languages insomuch that their Auditors admired the marvelous works of God when they heard the Servants of Christ speaking every one in their own Tongue Thus they were qualified by an extraordinary Inspiration to teach all Nations and to preach the Gospel throughout the whole World And as they had diversity of Gifts and different Administrations so they were enabled by the power of the Holy Ghost to work Miracles 2 Cor. 12 8 9 10 11. and in the Name of Christ to do even what they list To them was given the power of healing all manner of Diseases the raising the Dead to life But one great and signal Gift they received which to the
is the onely signe of a Child of Grace the onely certain evidence of a good Christian That man who in the general course of his life carries a sincere respect to the Commandments of God and in good earnest studies to conform his actions to his holy Laws that carefully avoids the occasions of evil and seriously resists the Wiles and Temptations of the Devil that despiseth not any Precept of the Gospel because the matter of it may seem small and inconsiderable nor refuseth the severest duty because of the pains and trouble it may put him to Such a man is the honest upright Christian a true Disciple and Sevant to the Son of God notwithstanding his infirmities and frailties which through Inadvertency Surprize or a violent Temptation he may sometimes commit which as 't is impossible for the best man in this imperfect State to secure and fortifie himself against so the Mercies of God in the dispensation of the Gospel doth graciously pardon and through the Merits of Christ readily pass them over But he that committeth sin is of the Devil He that casts off the fear of God from his eyes and lives in a constant course of a wicked life that complies with the Temptations of the Devil but is careless and indifferent in the Profession and Practice of Religion that habituates himself to the practice of any one known sin or the neglect of any necessary Christian duty though he be not arrived to the highth of wickedness but make some shew and appearance of Religion by prosessing the Christian Faith frequenting the publick Offices of Religion and exercising the material parts of some Vertues and Graces yet if his Obedience be not uniform and entire according to the scope and tenour of the Gospel he is certainly in a state of sin and iniquity and whatever his Profession or Confidence be without controversie a Child of the Devil for St. James tells us that true Christian Wisdom must shew itself without partiality without hypocrisie and the same Apostle confidently assures us that whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all Jam. 3.18 â— 2.10 2. This Argument is an excellent Criterion to judge of the truth of Doctrines which are delivered as the Doctrines of Christ whether they be so or no. Our Apostle gives us an admonition and direction to this purpose 1 Jo. 4.1 2 3. Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus is come in the flesh that is every Doctrine which is consonant with the Incarnation of the Son of God and the design of his being manifest in the world is of God for God manifested in the flesh is a great Mystery of Godliness 1 Tim. 3.15 and St. Paul calls the Christian Faith the truth which is after Godliness Tit. 1.1 But every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus is come in the flesh that is every Doctrine which is contrary to the design of his Incarnation that is apt to hinder a good life or invalidate the necessity of it cannot be from God Whatever Doctrine gives licence or connivance to sin must needs proceed from the Devil that enemy of all goodness though the Author pretend to an Infallible Spirit like the Church of Rome or to Divine Inspiration like our Modern Enthusiasts Yet in the Church of Rome such Doctrines as these are solemnly constituted as Essential parts of the Christian Religion and imposed upon the Christian world with the same authority as the most Fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith Thus the Sacrament of Penance joyned with Confession is represented as sufficient to Salvation The Doctrine of Purgatory which supposeth an expiation of sin by the Prayers of the living after death Prayers in an unknown Tongue The prohibition of the Scriptures without licence to the people The dispensing of Indulgences the Popes Supremacy and Infallibility and others of the same nature are imposed with the same Authority and received with the same Veneration and Piety as the belief of Deity the Redemption of the world by the Son of God and the Rewards of another Life It 's needless and would be too tedious to consider them particularly but what man of common sense and understanding is not able to see that these Doctrines are directly and of their own nature great impediments and obstructions of a good life and therefore are not of God To the same ill purpose tend those frequent discourses of the Absolute Decrees of God the irresistibility of Divine Grace together with the weak and imperfect description of Faith with the strange Metaphorical expressions by which those Doctrines are unhappily represented to the world with Doctrines of like affinity confidently vented and spread abroad by the too curious and bold discoverers of hidden and unrevealed Mysteries For that Faith that doth not ingage men to become new Creatures and to keep the Commandments of God can never justifie much less save them and that Grace which shall infallibly work to convert men however disposed may make men careless and oscitant to the duties of Religion but doth neither require nor incourage their care and industry and those decrees which have irrevocably and absolutely sentenced men to Heaven or Hell from all Eternity may pamper some with presumption drive others to despair but can have no efficacy to perswade men to work out their Salvation with fear and trembling And therefore those persons that have imbibed these opinions ought to have a great care to keep their Hearts sounder than their Heads that they may be good though they apprehend no rational necessity why they should be so But if such men be good upon false and pernicious Principles as I make no question but many such erroneous persons are what eminent Lights might they be in the Church of God for sanctity and holiness of life if they would suffer right Reason and the acknowledged Principles of Religion to supplant their Erroneous Opinions and be perswaded to embrace the truth as it is in Jesus Lastly the consideration of this Doctrine should be a prevalent and most effectual Argument to perswade those that believe the truth and purport of it to leave off their sins and to lead Religious and godly lives We acknowledge our selves Christians and thereby profess to believe the Doctrine of Christ to live in obedience to his commands and in the stricter imitation of his holy life let us then look unto Jesus the Captain of our Salvation that we may prosecute that great and glorious end for which he came into the world became Emmanuel God with and incarnate among us That he was manifest in the flesh to destroy the works of the devil hath been in some measure represented to your consideration both from his holy life and meritorious death the design and tendency of his Doctrine the mission and dispensation of the Holy Ghost the many signal and eminent victories over the