injoyned to both parts in those other collaterall and needlesse disquisitions which if they might befit the Schools of Academicall disputants could not certainly sound well from the Pulpits of popular Auditories Those reconciliatory papers fell under the eyes of some Grave Divines on both parts Mr. Montague professed that he had seen them and would subscribe to them very willingly others that were contrarily minded both English Scotish and French Divines profered their hands to a no less ready subscription So as much peace promised to result out of that weak and poor enterprise had not the confused noise of the misconstructions of those who never saw the work crying it down for the very Names sake meeting with the royall edict of a general Inhibition buryed it in a secure Silence I was scorched a little with this flame which I desired to Quench yet this could not stay my hand from thrusting it self into an hotter fire Some insolent Romanists Jesuites especially in their bold disputations which in the time of the treaty of the Spanish Match and the calme of that Relaxation were very frequent pressed nothing so much as a Catalogue of the Professors of our Religion to be deduced from the primitive times and with the peremptory challenge of the impossibility of this Pedigree dazeled the eyes of the simple whiles some of our learned men undertaking to satisfy so needless and unjust a demand gave as I conceived great advantage to the Adversary In a just Indignation to see us thus wrong'd by misâ—stateing the Question betwixt us as if we yielding our selves of an other Church Originally and fundamentally different should make good our own erection upon the Ruines yea the Nullity of theirs and well considering the Infinite and great inconveniences that must needs follow upon this defence I adventured to set my pen on work desiring to rectifie the Opinions of those men whom an ignorant zeal had transported to the prejudice of our holy Cause laying forth the Damnable corruptions of the Roman Church yet making our game of the outward visibility thereof and by this means putting them to the probation of those newly obtruded corruptions which are truly guilty of the breach betwixt us The drift whereof being not well conceived by some spirits that were not so wise as fervent I was suddenly exposed to the rash censures of many well affected and zealous Protestants as if I had in a Remission to my wonted zeal to the Truth attributed too much to the Roman Church and strengthned the adversaries hands and weakned our own This envy I was fain to take off by my speedy Apologeticall advertisment and after that by my Reconciler B. Morton B. Davenant Dr. Prideaux D. Primrose seconded with the unaminous Letters of such Reverend Learned sound Divines both Bishops and Doctors as whose undoubtable authority was able to bear down calumny it self which done I did by a seasonable moderation provide for the Peace of the Church in silencing both my defendants and challengers in this unkind and ill-raised quarrell Immediately before the Publishing of this Tractate which did not a little aggravate the envy and suspicion I was by his Majesty raised to the Bishoprick of Exceter having formerly with much humble Deprecation refused the See of Glocester earnestly proffered unto me How beyond all expectation it pleased God to place me in that Western charge which if the Duke of Buckinghams Letters he being then in France had arived but some hours sooner I had been defeated of and by what strange means it pleased God to make up the Competency of that provision by the unthought of addition of the Rectory of St. Breok within that Diocess if I should fully relate the Circumstances would force the Confession of an extraordinary hand of God in the disposing of those events I entred upon that place not without much prejudice and suspicion on some hands for some that sate at the sterne of the Church had me in great Jelousie for too much favour of Puritanisme I soon had intelligence who were set over me for espialls my ways were Curiously observed and scanned However I took the resolution to follow those courses which might most conduce to the Peace and happiness of my New and weighty charge finding therefore some factious spirits very busie in that Diocess I used all fair and gentle means to win them to good order and therein so happily prevailed that saving two of that numerous Clergy who continuing in their refractoriness fled away from censure they were all perfitly reclaimed so as I had not one Minister professedly opposite to the anciently received orders for I was never guilty of urging any new Impositions of the Church in that large Diocess Thus we went on comfortably together till some persons of note in the Clergy being guilty of their own negligence and disorderly courses began to envy our success and finding me ever ready to encourage those whom I found conscionably forward and painfull in their places and willingly giving way to Orthodox and peaceable Lectures in severall parts of my Diocess opened their mouths against me both obliquely in the Pulpit and directly at the Court complaining of my too much Indulgence to persons disaffected and my too much liberty of frequent Lecturings within my charge The billowes went so high that I was three severall times upon my knee to his Majesty to answer these great Criminations and what Contestation I had with some great Lords concerning these particulars it would be too long to report only this under how dark a Cloud I was hereupon I was so sensible that I plainly told the Lord Archbishop of Canter that rather then I would be obnoxious to those slanderous tongues of his misinformers I would cast up my Rochet I knew I went right wayes and would not endure to live under undeserâ—â—piâ—â—ons what messages of caution I had from 〈◊〉 of my â—â—ry Brethren and what expostulatory Letters I had from above I need not relate Sure I am I had Peace and comfort at home in the happy sense of that generall unanimity and loving correspondence of my Clergy till in the last year of my presiding there after the Synodicall oath was set on foot which yet I did never tender to any one Minister of my Diocess by the incitation of some busie interlopeâ—s of the neighbour County some of them began to enter into an unkind contestation with me about the election of Clerks of the convocaâ—ion whom they secretly without ever acquainting me with their desire or purpose as driving to that end which we see now accomplished would needs nominate and set up in Competition to those whom I had after the usuall form recommended to them That they had a right to free voices in that choice I denyed not only I had reason to take it unkindly that they would work underhand without me and against me professing that if they had before hand made their desires known to me I should willingly have
the Gospell begin to cast wanton eyes upon their glorious superstitions and contrary to the lawes of God and our Soveraign throng to their exoticall devotions What shall we say Increpa Domine Master rebuke them And ye to whom God hath given grace to see and bewail the lamentable exorbitances of their superstitions settle your souls in the noble resolution of faithfull Joshua I and my house will serve the Lord. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free Hath the Gospell of God freed us from the worship of stocks and stones from the mis-religious invocation of those who we know cannot hear us from the sacrilegious mutilation of the blessed sacrament From the tyrannical usurpations of a sinfull vice-god From the dangerous relyance upon the inerrable sentence of him that cannot say true from the idle fears of imaginary Purgatories from buying of pardons and selling of sins shortly from the whole body of damnable Antichristianisme and shall our unstable mouths now begin to water at the Onions and Garlick of our forsaken Egypt Oh Dear Christians if ye love your solus if ye fear hell stand fast in this liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free What mercy soever may abide well-meaning ignorance let the wilfull revolter make account of damnation I cannot without yearning of bowels think of the dear price that our holy fore-fathers stak't down for this liberty of the Gospel no lesse then their best and last blood And shall we their unthrifty progeny lavish it out carelessly in a willing neglect and either not care to exchange it for a plausible bondage or squander it out in unncecessary differences Do but cast your eyes back upon the fresh memory of those late flourishing times of this goodly kingdome when pure religion was not more cheerfully professed then inviolably maintained how did we then thrive at home and triumph abroad How were we then the terrour the envy of Nations Our name was enough to affright to amate an enemy But now since we have let fall our first love and suffered the weak languishments and qualmes of the truth under our hands I fear and grieve to tell the issue Oh then suffer your selves O ye noble and beloved Christians to be rouzed up from that dull and lethargick indâ—fferencie wherein ye have thus long slept and awake up your holy courages for God and his sacred truth And since we have so many comfortable and assured ingagements from our pious Soveraign Oh let not us be wanting to God to his Majesty to our selves in our utmost endeavours of advancing the good successe of the blessed Gospell of Christ Honour God with your faithfull and zealous prosecutions of his holy truth and he shall honour you and besides the restauration of that antient glory to our late-clouded Nation shall repay our good Offices done to his name with an eternal weight of glory in the highest heavens to the possession whereof he that hath ordained us in his good time mercifully bring us for the sake of the Son of his love Jesus Christ the just To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite God be given all praise honour and glory now and for ever Amen DIVINE LIGHT AND REFLEXIONS IN A SERMON Preacht to his MAJESTY at WHITE-HALL On Whitsunday 1640. By JOS. EXON 1 John 1.5 God is Light IF ye mark it your very Calender so as the wisdom of the Church hath contrived it is a notable Catechism And surely if the plain man would but ply his Almanack well that alone would teach him Gospell enough to show him the history of his Saviour If one day teach another all dayes would teach him There should he see his blessed Saviours conception Annuntiated by the Angel March 25. Fourty weekes after that he should see him born of the Virgin accordingly at the feast of the Nativity eight dayes after that circumcised on New years day then visited and adored by the Sages in the Epiphanie then presented into the Temple on the day of Purification then tempted and fasting fourty dayes in Lent He should see him usher'd in by his fore-runner the holy Baptist six Moneths before his Nativity attended by his twelve Apostles in their severall ranks and Thomas the last for his unbelief And at last after infinite and beneficiall miracles he should see him making his Maundy with his disciples on the Thursday and crucified on Good Friday he should see that on Easter Morning God the Father raises up his Son Jesus from the dead Act 5.30 On Ascention day God the Son mounts up to Heaven in glory Act. 1.9 On Whitsunday God the holy Ghost descends upon the Apostles Act. 2.3.4 And his belief in all these summed up in the celebration of the blessed Trinity the Sunday following I shall not over-labour to reduce the Text to the day Fire and light have so near affinity that they are scarce ever separated The same Spirit of God who appeared as this day in the shape of fierie tongues to the disciples may be now pleased by my tongue to manifest himself to your souls in light And as that fire was very lightsome else it could not have been seen in the day-time so may this exhibition of light be accompanied with a fire of holy zeal both in my tongue and your hearts In my last Sermon at the Court I gave you the Character of man I shall now indeavour to give you some touches of the Character of God There is nothing in this world so much concerns a man as to settle his heart in a right apprehension of his God which must be the ground of all his piety and devotion without which all his pretenses of Religion are so nothing worth as that in them God is made our Idoll and we the mis-worshippers of him without which shortly our whole life is mis-spent in error and ignorance and ends in a miserable discomfort Whence it is that this dear disciple makes it the summ of all the Apostolicall mission which he had from his Lord and Saviour to informe the World what to think of God This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare to you that God is light Would ye know the message which the Apostles received from Christ would ye know the message which they delivered from Christ to the World it is in these three syllables of my Text. God is light It is not possible that our finite conceit should comprehend God essentially as he is in himself No motion of our weak humanity can thus reach his infiniteness our ambition must be only to conceive of him according to those expressions which he hath made of himself wherein it hath pleased his wisdom to condescend to our shallow capacity by borrowing from those creatures which come nearest to his most pure simple spirituall nature Amongst which none is more proper or more frequent then this of Light Not only therefore hath it pleased God to expresse those Heavenly
of our sins with Israels Yet one more do we think of the bold intrusion of presumptuous persons into the sacred calling without any commission from God Of whom do we think the Prophet Jeremy speaks The Prophets prophesy lies in my name I sent them not neither have I commanded them nor spake unto them They prophesy unto you a false vision and the deceit of their own heart Jer. 14.14 and again I have not sent these Prophets yet they run I have not spoken to them yet they prophesyed Jer. 23.21 To what purpose should I instance in more as I easily might as practical atheisme falsehood cruelty hypocrisy ingratitude and in a word universal corruption O England England too like to thy sister Israel in all her spiritual deformities if not rather to thy sister Sodome Behold this was the iniquity of thy Sister sodome pride fulnesse of bread and abundance of idlenesse was in her neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy Ezechiel 16.49 Lo thou art as haughty as she and hast committed all her abominations But that which yet aggravates thy sin is thy stubborne incorrigiblenesse and impudence in offending is it not of thee that the Prophet Jeremy speaks This is a Nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God nor receiveth correction Jer. 7.28 For O our God hast thou not whipt us soundly and drawn blood of us in abundance yet wo is me what amendment hast thou found in us what one excesse have we abated what one sin have we reformed what one vice have we quitted Look forth brethren into the World see if the lives of men be not more loose and lawlesse their tongues more profane their hands more heavily oppressive their conversation more faithlesse their contracts more fraudulent their contempt of Gods messengers more high their neglect of Gods ordinances more palpable then ever it was Yea have not too many amongst us added to their unreformation an impudence in sinning Is it not of these that the Prophet speaketh Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination Nay they were not ashamed at all neither could they blush therefore shall they fall among them that fall in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down saith the Lord Jer. 8.12 By this time I suppose you see how too much cause we have to mourn for those sins of practise which have fetcht down judgments upon us turn your eyes now a little to those intellectual wickednesses which we call sins of Opinion Opinion think some of you now alas what so great offence can there be in matter of conceit and in those results of ours ratiocination which we picht upon in the cases of Religion let me tell you dear Christians what valuation soever you may please to set upon these capital errours of the understanding set abroach for the seduction of simple souls there is more deadly mischief and higher offence to God in them then in those practical evils which honest hearts profess to abhorr These as they are the immediate sins of our spirituall part so they do more immediately strike at the God of Spirits in his Truth and holinesse and as Religion is the highest concernment of the soul so the depravation of Religion must needs be most dangerous and damnable It is no marvell therefore if a truly-truly-zealous Christian could even weep his eyes out to see hear those hellish heresies Atheous paradoxes which have poysoned the very air of our Church wherein they were vented One beats the keys into the sword or hangs them at the Magistrates girdle so as he suspends religion upon the meer will and pleasure of severaignty One allowes plurality or community of Wives another allows a man to divorce that wife he hath upon sleight occasions and to take another One is a Ranter another is a Seeker a third is a Shaker One dares question yea disparage the sacred Scriptures of God another denies the Souls immortality a third the Bodies resurrection One spits his poyson upon the blessed Trinity another blasphemes the Lord Jesus and opposes the eternity of his Godhead One is altogether for inspirations professing himself above the sphere of all Ordinances yea above the blood of Christ himself Another teaches that the more villanie he can commit the more holy he is that only confidence in sinning is perfection of sanctity that there is no hell but remorse To put an end to this list of blasphemies the very mention whereof is enough to distemper my tongue and your ears One miscreant dares give himself out for God Almighty Another for the Holy Ghost Another for the Lord Christ Another a vile adulterous strumpet for the Virgin Mary O God were there ever such frenzies possessed the braines of men as these sad times have yieled Was ever the Devil so prevalent with the sons of men Neither have these prodigious wretches smothered their damnable conceits in their impure breasts but have boldly vented them to the World so as the very presses are openly defiled with the most loathsome disgorgments of their wicked blasphemies Here here my dear brethren is matter more then enough for our mourning If we have any good hearts to God if any love to his truth if any zeal for his glory if any care for his Church if any compassion of either perishing or endangered souls we cannot but apprehend just cause of pouring out our selves into tears for so horrible affronts offered to the dread Majesty of our God for so inexpiable a scandal to the Gospel which we professe for so odious a conspurcation of our holy profession and lastly for the dreadful damnation of those silly souls that are seduced by these cursed impostors Ye have seen now what cause we have of mourning for sins both of Practise and Opinion It remaines now that we consider what cause of mourning we may have from our dangers for surely fear as it is alwayes joyned with grief so together with it is a just provoker of our tears And here if I should abridge all the holy Prophets and gather up out of them all the menaces of judgments which they denounce against their sinfull Israel I might well bring them home to our own doors and justly affright us with the expectation of such further revenge from Divine Justice for how can we otherwise think but that the same sins must carry away the same punishments The holy God is ever constant to his own most righteous proceedings if then our sins be like theirs why should we presume upon a dissimilitude of judgments Here then it is easy to descry a double danger worth our mourning for the one of further smart from the hand of God for our continuing and menacing wickednesse the other of further degrees of corruption from our selves For the first let that sad Prophet Jeremiah tell you what we may justly fear They are not humbled even unto this day neither have they feared nor walked in my law
sure having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his The Lord knoweth and none but he neither Man nor Angel It is sealed on purpose that it may be concealed and reserved only in the counsel of the most High It is therefore a most high and dangerous presumption in any man to passe a judgment upon the final estate of another especially to the worse part This is no other then to rush into the Closet of the Highest and to break open his cabinet and to tear up the privy Seal of Heaven an insolence that God will not passe over unrevenged It was a good answer that the Servant gave in the story who carrying a covered dish through the Street and being asked what it was answered It is therefore covered that thou mayest not know and so it is here the final estate of every Soul is sealed that it may be known only to the God of Heaven and if any man dare to pry into this Ark of God with the men of Bethshemesh let him fear to be struck dead as they were 1 Sam. 6. The Romanists have taken too much boldnesse this way there is one of their Saints St. Matilda or St. Maude a Prophetesse of theirs which in her Revelations professeth that she would needs know of God what became of the Souls of four men Sampson Solomon whom I must tell you the greatest part of the Romish Doctors give out for a cast away very injuriously and uncharitably since that besides his being a type of Christ and a pen-man of some part of holy Scripture his Ecclesiastes is a plain publication to all the World of his penance for his former miscarriages Origen and Trajane and received this answer What my pitty hath done with Sampson I will not have known that men may not be incouraged to take revenge on their enemies what my mercy hath done with Solomon I will not have known lest men should take too much liberty to carnal sins What my bounty hath done with Origen I would not have known lest men should put too much confidence in their knowledg What my liberality hath done with Trajan I would not have known for the advancement of the Catholick faith lest men should sleight the Sacrament of Baptism a presumptious question and an answer answerable So they have not stuck to tell us that the same day that their St. Thomas Becket dyed there dyed in all the World three thousand thirty and three whereof 3000. went to Hell thirty to Purgatory and three whereof their Saint was one to Heaven sure I think much alike I will not weary you with their frenzies of this kind they have bragg'd of some of their Saints who have had this deep insight into the hearts of men and counsels of God that they could tell by the view who should be saved who condemned and some fanatick Spirits in our Church have gone so farr as to take upon them as some vain Palmesters by the sight of the hand to judge of fortunes by the face and words and garbe and carriage of men to passe sentence of reprobation upon other mens souls what an horrible insolence is this in any creature under Heaven or in it There may be perhaps grounds to judg of a mans present condition God doth not call any man to stupidity or unreasonablenesse If I see a man live debauchedly in drunkennesse in whoring in professed profanesse If I hear him in his ordinary speeches to tear Gods name in pieces with oaths and bsasphemies I may safely say that man is in a damnable condition and must demean my self to him accordingly forbearing an entire conversation with him with such a one eat not saith the Apostle but if I shall presume to judg of his finall estate I may incur my own condemnation in pronouncing his Judg not that ye be not judged Perhaps that man whom thou sentencest is in the secret counsel of God sealed to life and shall go before thee to Heaven who that had seen Manasses revelling in his Idolatry Magick Murder worshiping all the hoast of Heaven polluting the house of God with his abominable altars using sorceries and inchantments filling the streets of Jerusalem with innocent blood 2 Kings 21. would not have said there is a cast-away Yet howsoever the history of the Kings leaves him in his sin and dishonor yet in the 2 Chron. 33. You find his conversion his acceptation his prayer and how God was entreated of him vers 19. So as for ought we know he lived a Devil and dyed a Saint Who that had seen and heard Soul breathing out threatnings and executing his bloody cruelties upon the Church of God dragging poor Christians to their judgments and executions would not have given him for a man branded for hell yet behold him a chosen vessel the most glorious instrument of Gods name that hath been since Christ left the earth as thou lovest thy Soul therefore meddle not with Gods seal leave that to himself Thou mayest read the superscription of a man if thou wilt and judge of his outside but take heed of going deeper look well to the seal that God hath set upon thine own soul look for that new name which none can read but he that hath it this is worth thine enquiry into and God hath given thee the Characters whereby to decipher it whom he did predestinate them also he called and whom he called them also he justifyed and whom he justified them also he glorified that is they are as sure to be glorified as if they were glorified already Rom. 8.30 Read thine own name in the book of life and thou art happy as for others let thy rule be the judgment of charity and let Gods seal alone Secret things belong to God and things revealed to us and our children but if thou wilt needs be searching into Gods counsel remember that of Solomon as the Vulgar reads it Prov. 25.27 Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur a gloria He that pries into Majesty shall be overwhelmed with glory Now that from the Secrecy we may descend to the Peculiarity of Designation You know it in common practise in your trades and merchandise that when a man hath bought a parcel of commodities he sets his marke upon them to distinguish them from the rest in the warehouse so doth our God he sets a mark upon his own whereby they are plainly differenced from others And this mark besides the stampe of his eternal decree is true sanctification By this then it is that we are known from the World As upon some large plain where there are severall flocks and heards feeding together every one knows his own by his mark So the man with the writers inkhorne set a mark upon those which mourned for their own sins and the sins of their people Ezek. 9. It is therefore so farr from truth that our sanctification is no certain proof of our son-ship and of our interest in the covenant of grace as that there is no other
besides it And indeed what other can we insist upon Outward profession will not do it many a one shall say Lord Lord with a zealous reduplication which yet shall be excluded And for pretended revelations they are no lesse deceitfull Satan oftentimes transforming himself into an Angel of light A Zidkijeh thinks he hath the Spirit as well as any Michaiah of them all our books are full of the reports of dangerous dulusions of this kind whereby it hath come to pass that many a one in stead of the true David hath found nothing but an image of clouts laid upon a bolster stuffed with Goats hair 1 Sam. 19.16 But this mark of reall sanctification cannot fail us It will ever hold good that which St. Paul hath Rom. 8. So many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Nothing in this World can so highly concern us as this to see and know whether we be sealed to the day of Redemption Would we know how it may be evidenced to us look upon the impression that Gods Spirit hath made upon our hearts and lives if he have renewed us in the inner man and wrought us unto true holiness to a lively faith to a sincere love of God to a conscionable care of all our actions and to all other his good graces doubtlesse we are so sealed that all the powers of Hell cannot deface and obliterate this blessed impression But the principal main use of this Seal is for certainty of performance If we have the word of an honest man we believe it but if we have his hand we make our selves more sure but if we have both his hand and seal we rest secure of the accomplishing of what is given or undertaken How much more assurance may we have when we have the word of a God whose very title is Amen Rev. 3.14 whose promises are like himself Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 Alas the best man is deceitful upon the balance and his true stile is Omnis homo mend ax every man is a lyer But for this God of truth Heaven and Earth shall passe away before one tittle of his word shall fail but when that promise is seconded by his Seal what a transcendent assurance is here It is the charge of the Apostle Peter Give diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Sure not in respect of God whom no changes can reach whose word is I am Jehovah my counsel shall stand but in respect of our apprehension not in regard of the object only which cannot fail but even of the subject also which if it were not fecible sure the Spirit of God would not have injoyned it or imposed it upon us The Vulgar reads Per bona opera by good works And indeed it is granted by Beza and Clamier that in some Greek copies it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereupon Bellarmine would fain take an advantage to prove his conjecturall assurance A strange match of words meerly contradictory for if but conjecturall how can it be assurance and if it be assurance how only conjecturall we may as well talk of a false truth as a conjecturall assurance But that implication of Bellarmine is easily blown over if we consider that these Good works do not only comprehend external works as almes-deeds prayer attendance on Gods ordinances and the like but also the internall acts of the soul the Acts of believing the Acts of the love of God the Acts of that hope which shall never make us ashamed These will evidence as our calling and election so the certainty of both and therefore are the seal of our Redemption Let foolish men have leave to improve their wits to their own wrong in pleading for the uncertainty of their right to Heaven But for us let us not suffer our souls to take any rest till we have this blessed seal put upon us to the assuring of our Redemption and Salvation that we may be able to say with the chosen vessel God hath sealed us and given us the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1.22 If we have the grant of some good lease or some goodly Mannor made to us by word of mouth we stay not till we have gotten it under black and white and not then till we have it under seal nor then if it be a perpetuity till we have livery and seizin given us of it and when all this is done we make account securely to enjoy our hopes and shall we be lesse carefull of the main-chance even of the eternal inheritance of Heaven Lo here all these done for us Here is the word preaching peace and Salvation to all that believe here are his Scriptures the internal monuments of his written word confirming it here is the seal added to it here is the Livery and Seâ—zin given in the earnest of his Spirit and here is sufficient witnesse to all even Gods Spirit witnessing with our Spirits that we are the sons of God Let us finde this in our bosome and we are happy neither let our hearts be quiet till we can say with the chosen Vessel I am perswaded that neither life nor death nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any creature can be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 3. the last verse Lo this is not a guesse but an assurance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither doth the Apostle speak of his own speciall revelation as the Popish Doctors would pretend but he takes all beleevers into the partnership of this comfortable unfailablenesse nothing shall separate us thus happy are we if we be sealed unto the day of Redemption Having now handled the parts severally let us if you please put them together and see the power of this inference or argument ye are by the Spirit of God sealed to the day of redemption Oh therefore grieve not that Spirit of God by whom ye are thus sealed The Spirit of God hath infinitely merited of you hath done so much for you as ye are not capable to conceive much lesse to answer in so Heavenly an obsignation Oh then be you tender of giving any offence to that good Spirit Do not you dare to do ought that might displease that loving and beneficent Spirit Be not you so much your own enemies as to give just distast to your good God So as the force of the argument as we intimated at the first lies upon an action of unkindnesse affording us this instruction that the ground of Gods Childrens fear to offend must be out of love and thankfulness great is thy mercy that thou maist be feared saith the Psalmist he doth not say great is thy mercy that thou maist be loved nor great is thy Majesty that thou maist be feared but great is thy mercy that thou maist be feared base servile natures are kept in with feare