force of Errors to the end of the World When he ascended up on high he led Captivity captive and gave gifts unto men He made the illiterate Gallileans baffle the Infidelity of the Jews confound the Philosophy of the Athenians and expose the Worship of Demons The Donatives that he scattered amongst his followers overcame the little Reasonings and Sophistry of Carnal Wisdom and made both Jew and Gentile stoop to receive the Yoke of the Crucified Messias The Prophecy of Joel was fulfilled and his Spirit powred out on all flesh in such plentiful effusions that it broke down all opposition it carried all before it and defied all obstacles that were invented by human Counsel and though this be meant in its most eminent sense of the Apostolical Age yet the same Spirit supplies the Church in all Ages out of the same fulness But Thirdly IN this Metaphor is implied the strength of its Inclosure The Church is a Society formed and combined by Spiritual Laws and Ligaments for Jerusalem is a City that is compact together Psal 122. Accordingly the Psalmist prays Peace be within thy Walls and Prosperity within thy Palaces The Church is a foreign Colony a Kingdom not of this World fortified with Spiritual Power Laws and Arguments to overawe the Consciences of Men to reclaim the stubborn to establish the Authority of Jesus by the Promises and Threatnings of an Invisible Kingdom for his Kingdom is not of this World it forms no designs against the Temporalities of Princes it gives no disturbance to their Possessions it lives in the profoundest peace and the most absolute tranquillity AND until Ease Luxury Riches and Idleness had debauch'd the Morals and Intellectuals of the Western Church there was no disturbance given to the Powers of the Earth the Church indeed is a Society but a Society whose Laws Maxims and Methods are wholly different from Secular Policy The Nature and Genius of our Religion abstracts Mens Minds from the World and the Laws of it are Pure Heavenly and Spiritual and the natural tendency of them is to alienate our affections from the Earth HAVE you observed any Society of Men under the Name of a Church grasping at Earthly Power and by Secular Intrigues and Contrivances levelling all opposition it is no more acted by the Spirit of Jesus Yet notwithstanding of this Innocence the Church is a Fountain of Gardens a peculiar Inclosure that neither Wolves nor Bears can break through neither Persecutors nor Hereticks can destroy it the gates of Hell cannot prevail against it the Storms may indeed rise very high but Christ is in the Ship and he can reprove the Winds and Storms Psal 129. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth may Israel say yet have they not prevailed the Plowers plowed upon my back and made long their furrows WHEN we remember that the whole World lies in wickedness and the Spirit that prevails most among Mankind is opposite to the designs of the Gospel what a Miracle of the Divine Goodness is it that the Hedge of the Church is not quite broke down And sometimes the violent attempts of the Kingdom of Darkness may so far prevail by the permission of God as utterly to deface and ruine particular Churches They have all their Intervals Eclipses and several Periods of Light and Darkness for no particular Church by any Promise Grant or Privilege of our Saviour is secured from a possibility of falling by Error Defection and Heresie but the preservation of the Church is owing wholly to the Divine Arm his Love Care and Tenderness reaches the Church in all her conditions and members He shall feed his flock like a Shepherd he shall gather the Lambs with his Arm and carry them in his Bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young HIS Ambassadors must be such as by their Seriousness Gravity and Innocence may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men we must resolutely encounter the hard Censures and Obloquies of a perverse World and when we have done our utmost to oblige them to entertain the Gospel and us for the Gospels sake we may chance to be treated with all the marks of ignominy contempt and disdain If it be so difficult then to preserve the Church and our own Reputation from the attempts and malice of wicked men I think in Prudence Honour and Conscience we ought to be very kind to the Reputation of one another To bespatter ones Reputation is the greatest wound you can give his Character and it is all one whether you do it by a direct blow or slantingly by cunning and slie insinuations Indeed we can do little by our selves to defend the inclosure of the Church we are but weak and feeble and the wickedness of Men makes us more and more so yet if every one made his Brothers Reputation dear to him as his own we might do very much to vindicate the Innocence to extenuate the Infirmities to remove the reproaches that are Atheistically cast upon Men of our Order and the Church might appear unto our enemies to be in the language of the Bridegroom Cant. 6.4 beautiful as Tirzah and comely as Jerusalem and terrible as an Army with banners THE weakest things knit together make a strong resistance for though we fight not with carnal weapons yet those we make use of are mighty to break and shatter the Kingdom of Darkness and all its retinue THIS Metaphor implyes Fourthly The Propriety of Christ in his Spouse The Church is said in the twelfth Verse to be Fons signatus a Fountain sealed She carries the visible Badge and Livery of her dearest Lord and Redeemer She is the chast Spouse of Jesus Christ hence you find whenever the Jews made defection from the Worship of the true God the Prophets did upbraid them with their going a whoring after their Idols The Church is married unto him in Truth and Righteousness his Mystical Body bought with his Blood Silver and Gold could not redeem her the Love of Christ to the Church is incomprehensible the height the breadth and the depth of it goes beyond our imaginations and much more all our expressions He loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob and Psal 78.68 He chused Mount Zion which he loved he built his Sanctuary like the Earth which he hath established for ever his love to the Church is prima regula amoris Eph. 5.25 Husbands love your Wives even as Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it The Church hath but one Husband one Mediator one Sacrifice the Purity Value and Propitiation of which defends her for ever against all the efforts and assaults of Hell We see by what is said that this Metaphor in its true intent most naturally agrees to the Organick Church established in the true Faith and guarded with its true Pastors BUT I go forward to the second Particular that I promised to speak to the Purity of these Waters the Church is a
Dishonours and Churchyards that are the Seminaries of the Resurrection should not be places of pasturage for all kind of Animals And would to God that the Laity only were to be blam'd for this impious Prophanation BUT Fourthly Are our Bodies so curiously built Judge what the Soul must be that Lamp of Light that Candle of the Lord the invisible Jewel that 's laid up in that Casement 't is no less than the Breath of God it bears the Image of the Deity in legible Characters How active and indefatigable is it in the the search of Truth How much above the Enjoyments of Sense and feculent Pleasures of the Body With what transport doth it embrace Conclusions drawn from their Principles How fond is it of its own Contemplations that are raised on the immoveable Pillars of Reason How swifts in its Thoughts How easily does it fly round the Earth climb the Heavens and view the Creation 'T is a divine Spark of Light from the Father of Spirits that glances in those prisons of flesh for a while it 's true Pleasures are pure and Angelical it grasps Truth for the sake of Truth with Order and Complacency and makes to it self Ladders of true Consequences from the visible Creatures to ascend to Heaven BUT let us dwell a while longer on this Meditation Did God furnish our Minds with such noble Powers only to till the Ground and make provision for the flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof No certainly This vast and capacious Spirit that than lodge so many Truths together without Confusion or Disorder was design'd to enjoy God any thing else falls short of its Height and Grandeur WHENCE is this Appetite of Immortality that we feel within our selves Is it altogether in vain Did God place it within our Souls purely to vex us Was there nothing design'd to satisfie it Yes certainly else Mankind had been a phantastick Impertinence the vainest and the silliest nothing in the Creation For if in this life only we had hope we were of all men the most miserable confined to the Earth when our Souls fly far beyond it and immured in the Walls of Flesh when their Capacities dispose them for the Life and Enjoyment of Angels ALL the rest of the Creatures have Objects proper for their Appetites shall Man alone have Inclinations beyond the Earth and yet die like the Beasts that perish Let no such thought enter our Souls for we shall see him as he is LET me add to this If the Soul be so vivacious in its Walls of Flesh when 't is chained in this dark Tabernacle that as Quintilian observes it flies in a trace from one Object to another nothing can engross its power and strength how large and comprehensive must it be when we come to our Countrey above when we are united to the original Wisdom Light and Truth What a foolish violence doe we offer to our Souls when we bend and bow them to earthly Enjoyments Why did we not rather let them fly to the place of their rest and tranquility Their natural motion is towards Heaven and Christian Religion designs no more than their Primitive Liberty WHEN we would persuade Men to be religious we need not borrow our Arguments from foreign Topicks let them only look inwards let them view the frame of their own Souls their Knowledge Will and Memory the uneasie Reflections of their Consciences when they do amiss it makes them taste whether they will or not the fears of an impartial Tribunal that drags them in the midst of their Jollities before that Judge that can neither be deceived nor be imposed upon HEAR then the calm Reasonings of your own Spirits you may shift the force of our Arguments when we have urged them with all Zeal and Sincerity but you cannot hide your selves from that invisible Judge your own Souls IT were Folly in the highest degree to feed a hungry Stomach with wise Sayings excellent Diagrams or if such things were offered for the cure of a Man in a raging Fever this is the Folly we transcribe when we endeavour to satisfie our Souls with any thing short of God himself the Satisfaction and Happiness that we look after is higher than the Earth The Earth says it is not in me and the Sea says it 's not in me and the Treasures of both the Indies have nothing in them to feed the strong Desires of Immortality or to fill the Appetite of Reason BUT Fifthly Are our Souls and Bodies such Monuments of the Divine Wisdom should we not then frequently view and consider our own Frame and Composition Why are we such Strangers to our selves When the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the great deep the rest of the Creatures were formed in their order as they were commanded to appear by his word that commanded things which are not as if they were they were inded the more negligent strokes of Omnipotence but MAN appears by his deliberate Method and set off with the Characters of his Image in Wisdom Purity Liberty Immortality What Majesty in these Words Come let us make Man in our own Image And if the very rubbish of this Edifice the ruines of him in his lapsed Condition be so magnificent what was he when but a little lower than the Angels crowned with glory and dignity Especially when we remember that still he is capable of such Improvements Recover him by Education from his childish Vanities from his untamed Lust and Passions furnish him with Health Strength all Wisdom divine and humane invest him with publick Honour and Attendance and then he is but some degrees below the Angels of God And yet all this is but a shadow and a dream in compare with what Improvements he is capable of when regenerate to the Image of God and the hope of Glory ARE not we our selves then worthy of our most serious thoughts True Religion teaches a Man to converse with himself in the noblest manner to covet the highest Improvements of his own Nature to observe his own Failings Seneca tells us in one of his Epistles that it was his custom every Night when the candle was out calmly to examine himself and look narrowly into the Retirements of his own Conscience this often and seriously performed begat Calmness and Serenity in his Bosom which he compares to the Regions above the Moon where there are no Clouds no Vapours no Exhalations BUT a wicked Man is afraid to look within himself the violent Earthquakes and shakings of his Spirit make those Reflections intolerable Did we thus take our selves more accurately to task we would not have so much spare time to descant on the Actions of others we should be more merciful in our Censures less severe in our Reflections more equitable and just in all our Proceedings When Pausanias the Lacedemonian desired Simonides the Poet to bestow some memorable Saying upon him he gave him this Remember that you are a man AND indeed this contained a Compend
Well of Living Waters Dilherus renders it Puteus aquae viventis a deep Well non collectitiae clausae atque stagnantis sed ultrò scaturientis that by its copious frequent and uninterrupted ebullitions waters all the neighbouring Regions they are the only Waters can quench the Thirst of reasonable Souls this is the Well after which they pant and breath As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks Psal 42. HERE Interpreters take care to distinguish betwixt a Fountain and a Well Every Well is a Fountain but every Fountain is not a Well So the Well implies great depth and profundity and this Phrase added to the former does insinuate that the Waters of the Sanctuary are not only pure clear and serene but very deep they are not a puddle nor a standing Lake not like the Waters of Gomorrha where Fishes cannot live but the smooth and deep Rivers of Paradise THIS Metaphor then duly considered does imply the Purity Profundity and free Communication of these Oracles First I SAY the Purity of these Waters The Church of Christ is not to be fed with Dreams and Fancies and corrupt Doctrines not with noise ostentation and popular tricks but with Words of Eternal Life 2 Tim. 1.13 Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus We are to take heed 1 Tim. 4.16 to our selves and to our doctrine for this is the way to save our selves and them which hear us THE Hereticks of all Ages have been proud and subtile and indefatigable and there is no Antidote against their Poyson but to adhere to the Simplicity of the Gospel the pure Canon of the Scriptures the antient Creeds and Liturgies of the Church the faith which was delivered to the Saints the Doctrines that have been received uno ore apud omnes Christianos the Golden Rule of Vincentius Lirenensis quod apud omnes quod ubique quod semper This is certainly the Rule of Faith and by this Standard were the antient Heresies examined baffled and confounded Reason Scripture and Universal Tradition were the Weapons by which they defended the Truth For the Apostle foretells 2 Cor. 4.2 3. That the time would quickly come when men could not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts they should heap teachers to themselves and turn their ears from the truth and follow after fables They did so in a little time and the offspring of Simon Magus covered the Church as the Frogs did Egypt This occasioned the Heresiologies of Irenaeus Epiphanius S. Augustine Many forsook the Simplicity of Faith and mixt the Waters of Life with the putrid Streams that they drew from their own Cisterns THE Credenda of our Religion are but very few and the Constitution of Human Nature did require that they should be few For since our Saviour did calculate his Religion not for any particular Sect or Party but for the whole Body of Mankind it cannot be thought that he design'd that it should be spun out into Nice Decisions Metaphysical Distinctions odd and Barbarous Words When the School Divinity began to be the Learning of the Western Church and Aristotle's Philosophy gave Laws to their Theology how miserably was the Christian Religion mangled and broken into airy Questions uncertain Conclusions and idle Problems that eat out the Life of true Learning and Devotion And Articles imposed on the Belief of the Church neither necessary in their Nature nor revealed by Christ nor taught by the Apostles nor founded in Reason nor consisting with the Analogy of Faith The Christian Religion thus ratified unto nothing became feeble and dry lost its force and primitive vigour And the truth is since the Thirteenth Century in which that kind of Learning domineered in all Schools Colleges and Monasteries all Discourses even the Homilies that exhort the People to Repentance and a Holy Life were all blended with that bombast Jargon But our Religion was first plainly delivered and loves perspicuity and fixes its residence in the most ingenuous Souls and if it be covered and mantled in darkness who can distinguish it from Nonsense and Vanity AND therefore since Christ by us conveys these Waters to his Church let us not sully them with Chimerical Guesses and Uncertainties but let us pour them out in their original Purity and Simplicity without alteration corruption or addition How often doth the Apostle exhort to this 2 Tim. 7.8 In doctrine shewing uncorruptedness gravity sincerity sound speech that cannot be condemned And Titus 1.9 holding fast the faithful word as thou hast been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince gainsavers AND this is not done by Passion or reviling Language for where did you ever hear that a man was recovered from Heresie or Schism by heaping reproaches upon him Our Arguments may be intrinsecally strong but if they are set off with venom rancour and personal aspersions they may well irritate the Disease but they shall never reclaim the Erroneous and therefore when we deal with any such either on the right or left hand let us state the Controversies fairly else we but beat the Air neither must we multiply them needlesly nor are we to toss and bandy those Questions to serve the designs of Fame Ostentation of Learning or Popularity but with a sincere resolution to edifie the Church to fight under the Royal Standard of Christ to preserve his Church his chast and dearly beloved Spouse Secondly THIS Metaphor implies the profound Nature of Gospel Mysteries 't is puteus profundus aquae viventis The Woman of Samaria said to our Saviour of Jacobs Well that it was very deep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how much more profound are the Wells of Salvation The Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven the deep things of God the Mysteries kept hid from Ages and Generations Great is the Mysterie of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels believed on in the the World received up into Glory We are taught by the Gospel to speak the Wisdom of God in a Mysterie The illuminated Apostle of the Gentiles in contemplation of these Mysteries fell in a transport of admiration O the depth of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God how unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out THOUGH there be nothing in the Gospel that overthrows Reason or subverts its Principles yet its Mysteries and Revelations are beyond it The whole Contrivance of our Redemption is a Mysterie and then certainly we ought to approach the administrations of his House with pure hearts and clean hands Let us wash our hands in innocence when we compass his Altar They were to look to their feet that came to the Temple of Jerusalem much more should the Sons of Aaron the immedidiate Servants of the Sanctuary prove the keenest enemies to all prophanation of holy things I am no friend to Superstition and as little to Giddiness and
that kind of Religion to which they were most addicted And therefore our Religion must needs be of another stamp entirely pure gentle easie to be intreated full of good works without partiality and without hypocrisie 2. They thought that they might compensate for moral Miscarriages by long prayers and bodily severities And they would gladly submit to any thing rather than reform what ought to be truly amended 3. They believ'd they might merit eternal Life by the observation of one Precept though they liv'd in the habitual contempt and violation of all the rest Such a Precept they took their Sabbath to be WHEN we view the pure and unaffected complexion of our Religion how great an Enemy it is to all unworthy shifts and disguises how generous and refin'd above that Spirit that prevails in the World how amiable in the Eyes of God and Men then I say we may easily perceive that there is nothing more opposite unto it than that peevish superstition and hypocrisie that prevail'd in the Jewish Church when our Saviour appear'd And to the end that we may feel the force of our Religion to the best advantages Let us observe the following Directions 1. WE must understand our Religion thorowly and fix it in our Souls by the most accurate and serious consideration For though the motives of Christianity be of that moment that they may easily conquer our Souls yet unless they are duly applyed by Thought Reason and Meditation they loose their force and efficacy and they never impart to us the least degree of spiritual courage and activity God assaults our Reason in the first place and when we are overcome by Argument we are then a willing People we are Subjects by our choice and not by constraint Therefore are we frequently to view and consider the motives and arguments of our Religion and weigh them in the balance against the difficulties that oppose us That when we have examin'd and seriously debated whatsoever makes for or against our being Christians we may go forth to meet our Enemy with spiritual furniture and strength Shall the World and its triffling Interests notwithstanding that we are convinc'd of its emptiness and vanity take up so many of our Thoughts And shall we forget our immortal Souls and the Judgment to come Religion enters the Soul by Meditation and no Man can be Religious but by the acts of his Mind It is a reasonable service that we are call'd to and to make us continue in it with delight our Reason must be first engag'd How necessary this consideration is our Saviour represents in the Gospel of S. Luke What King goeth out to war doth not first sit down and consider if with his ten thousand he be able to meet him that comes against him with twenty thousand Or if a man resolve to build a Tower he first computes the expence and then he builds SUCH as are hastily engag'd in the service of Religion are frequently forc'd to retire with shame and dishonour And this is the usual result of rash and unsettled purposes which men make in the heat of their passion and under the power of some transient conviction 2. WE are always to perfer the Morals of Religion to its lesser Appendages and Ceremonies and to remember that the last are only subservient to advance the first True Christian Life is the Transcript of the Divine Nature Be ye holy as I am holy And again Be ye merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful There are such legible impressions of the Divine Nature felt in the Souls of the Regenerate that they attract his presence they are his peculiar habitations where he fixes his residence Nothing so enlarges the Spirit of a Man as to fix his eyes on the Life of Jesus to view with attention and delight how much he was above the World when environ'd with its terrors and flatteries He spoke of the invisible things as one does of his own Country He reason'd men out of their folly by all the force and weight of Heaven and Eternity And if we allow him to speak to our Consciences it is not possible to resist his reasonings He went about doing good He made himself accessible to us by the interposal of his humanity that we might see as well as hear the beauties of Christian Religion He taught us a Doctrine that is exactly calculated to refine our Nature to make us better in all relations And by this rule we are to examine the different pretences of all divided Parties If they advance by the plainest and nearest methods true Piety Innocency and Simplicity and propagate them in the Spirit of Love Unity and Subordination this is the surest mark to know that they belong to the Household of Faith 3. WE are here but Pilgrims and Strangers we are so to demean our selves as Candidates for Eternity Our Christian Life is but a flight from the World and the more we are alienated from the Spirit that prevails in it the more ripe we are for that incorruptible inheritance that is reserv'd for us Let us make the things of another World present to our selves by Faith For the fashion of this World passeth away And we are shortly to appear before Gods Tribunal stript naked of all the thin cobwebs and excuses whereby we endeavour'd to hide our deformities upon Earth 4. And lastly WHEN you have deliberately resolv'd consider the evil of back-sliding and its dreadful consequences There are but few who plainly and openly deny the Faith unto which they are Baptized yet many hundreds deny the Lord that bought them by their wicked Lives and unchristian Practices Now the just shall live by Faith but if any man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him But we are not of them who draw back into perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the Soul To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Glory Praise and Dominion for ever Amen A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday 1688. ON ACTS ii v. 1 2 3 4. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance THE Christian Church from the Ascension of our Blessed Saviour into Heaven until the Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles was full of great expectations and great fears they had not yet quite broke off from the Communion of the Jewish Church yet they continued in their solitude and retirements and in the true exercise of Charity and Patience until our Saviour should scatter his Royal Donatives upon his solemn and magnificent entrance into the
Heavens By which Gifts and Graces the Apostles were enabled to assert the Truth of our Religion boldly and proclaim the glad tidings of Salvation to all Nations and the Literal Judaism was to give place to the Mystical and the Messias was not only to be the Glory of his people Israel but a Light to lighten the Gentiles OUR Saviour after his Resurrection gave all assurance to the Apostles that he would send them another Comforter when He was gone unto the Father an Advocate to plead his Cause successfully one who should inspire them with strength and skill to defie and resist all the Calumnies and Slanders of Infidelity and therefore they ought not to give way either to grief sorrow or despondency For all Power in Heaven and in Earth was given to their Lord and Master He was highest in the Glory of the Father He was not only declared to be the Son of God by his Resurrection from the dead but God did highly exalt him and gave him a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth He instructed them formerly in the Spiritual Oeconomy of his Kingdom that they needed not be ashamed of the Doctrine of the Cross that it behov'd Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day to the end that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name throughout all Nations beginning at Jerusalem and withal that He was not unmindful of his Promise that He made before He was crucified now that he was risen from the dead but He assured them He would send the Promise of the Father upon them so much to their comfort success and satisfaction that the whole World should take notice of it In the mean time they were to remain quiet and knit together at Jerusalem until this Promise was fulfilled HE had before at their Ordination and formal Admission into the highest Order of the Church breathed on them and bad them receive the Holy Ghost By the which they were invested with a Legal and Authoritative Title to act as the Ambassadors of Jesus Christ to proclaim his Laws to require the Obedience of all Nations to convey this Power unto others to erect a new Society distinct from all Secular Incorporations to bind and loose by the Censures of the Church but still notwithstanding of their Authority they remain'd without strength until the solemn and magnificent Effusion of the Holy Ghost by which their Tongues being fired from Heaven their opposers were not able to resist the Wisdom by which they spake Now was the Prophecy of Joel fulfilled in the highest sense and so S. Peter applies it to this astonishing and heavenly manifestation And it shall come to pass in the last days saith God I will poure out of my Spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams THERE are who distinguish in the Writings of the New Testament between the Holy Ghost and the Spirit and that the Spirit signifies the Power of Miracles healing the Sick casting out of Devils restoring sight to the Blind raising the Dead by all which our Saviour proved himself to be the true Messias And by the Holy Ghost they think we ought to understand the wonderful Gifts of Utterance of Languages of Interpretation of Mysteries by which the Apostles were enabled in a moment to confound all the arts and oppositions of their enemies to run down with evidence all the calumnies and reproaches invented either by Jew or Gentile against the Person Life Doctrine or Miracles of our blessed Saviour BUT we shall have a better view of this when we fix our Meditations on that part of Scripture that I have read and consider it in all its mutual aspects and relations then I will endeavour to gather the several Branches of it together again in the Application WE find that the Apostles did exactly obey the Command of our Saviour they tarried at Jerusalem waiting for the promise of the Father The Text hath in it the accomplishment of this Promise and because it is so peculiar to this day to commemorate the Effusion of the Holy Ghost with the highest Joy and Gratitude I will invite your attention to these three Particulars in the words that I have read 1. THE disposition that the Apostles were in to receive the Holy Ghost they were all with one accord in one place 2. THE sensible Emblem of it manifested 1. To their Ears in the second Verse and to their Eyes in the third Verse And 3. HERE is the Accomplishment of the Promise the success and the appearance of it they were all filled with the Holy Ghost they began to speak with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance 1. Consider the Disposition that they were in to receive it They were all with one accord in one place The Holy Spirit cannot dwell in those Breasts that are gangreen'd with discords jars and animosities All our wild passions and unfriendly humours must be hush'd into silence at the approach of this heavenly Guest he chuses for his residence habitation those pure and innocent Souls that breath nothing but love candor simplicity and meekness the secret retirements of the Mind where he dwells must be made smooth even and regular the rugged and intricate circuits of Hypocrisie Hatred and Envy are inconsistent with his Presence He loves to fix his residence where there are some beautiful Lineaments of himself The peaceableness the charity the mutual love and zeal of promoting the welfare of one another was so remarkable in the first Christians that we must needs confess they were acted by a Spirit beyond the World this peace and love and unanimity is so essential to the Christian Religion that our Saviour made it the badge and Character of his Disciples hereby shall all men know that you are my disciples if ye love one another It is the fulfilling of the Law without it there is no access for our Prayers We are commanded when we bring our gift to the Altar to leave it there unoffered until we are reconciled to our brother And we are directed by the Apostle St. Paul to lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting In a word the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie And a little before he telleth us that bitter envyings and strife are the Companions of that wisdom that is earthly sensual and devilish Nay this Hatred and Enmity makes up the very nature of the Devil and if you could divide him and his Malice he were no more a Devil nor opposite to God for God is Love and they that dwell in God dwell in Love and the frequent repetitions of