their argumentations and parrallells who like Orators that manage an ill cause make least stay in the most important places And here I should put an end to this discourse of The Vindication of Gospell Ordinances having shown by generall grounds of Scripture the reason of the thing it selfe and a particular instance in a leading and prime Ordinance to wit baptisme that there are certaine formes and institutions remaining with us suited and proportioned to our state which are pledges of Christs love to us tracts and wayes wherein hee delights to meet us and meanes by which he conveys himselfe to us in this state of our Pilgrimage Whilst we are at home in the body and absent from the Lord whilst we live by Faith and not by sight whilst wee see in a glasse darkly and not face to face whilst wee know in part and not as we are knowne But least any should thinke that this tends to an undervaluing of the spirit of God or a lessening of his Empire though no such thing but the contrary is to be gathered out of all the premises yet I am not unwilling by way of Corollary and conclusion to this discourse to spend a few words particularly upon this subject and to professe before all the World that nothing ought to be so dear to us and so much esteemed and so much sought for by us as the accesses and influences of the holy spirit That it is the spirit that leads us into all truth it is the spirit that quickens the spirit that comforts us without which since our Lord went into Heaven we had been left Orphans and Fatherlesse It is the spirit that searcheth all things the spirit that inables to judge all things the spirit by which wee live in which wee walke when wee walke with God and doe any thing that is agreable to his will it is the spirit that seales us to the day of redemption and witnesseth with our spirits that we are the Sonnes of God It is the spirit that hath done all the wonderfull things which the holy Scriptures record it is the spirit that hath given boldnesse in all ages to doe and to suffer great things for the Name and Testimony of Jesus If I should pursue this Theame at large there would be no end or meane found of the Encomiums and Elogyes of the spirit It is the fellowship therefore and communion of the holy spirit which my soule breaths after and longs for above any thing imaginable But that which I affirme is that the spirit is communicated to us particularly and especially in such Ordinances as we have been speaking of It was the spirit that strove with the old World in the Ministry of Noah a Preacher of righteousnesse and in the administration of the old Covenant the things they were taught and provoked to were things spirituall and they were sayd to have the good spirit of the Lord to instruct them Nehem. 9.10 Which was undoubtedly the reason why the Saints of those times breathed so much after those Ordinances which God had fitted to their present state and capacity as things in which the spirit instructed them and God blest to them to know more of his mind then all the World by any other way or wisedome could doe For the new and better Covenant under which state and condition we live the spirit is conveyed to us by certaine formes and institutions of Gods owne inventing Preaching is a great Ordinance in the hand of God for the conveying of the holy spirit the Galatians received the spirit by the hearing of Faith preached Galat. 3.3 And we know that generally all the great and famous conversions which are seene in the World by which men are sayd to be borne of the spirit are administred by the Preaching of the Gospell in the mouth of the ordinary Ministers and dispensers of it former times for the greater glory of the beginnings of the Gospel had greater Harvests but the way of administration was the same then at one Sermon there were added to the Church three thousand and whilst Peter was Preaching to Cornelius and his friends the holy Ghost fell upon all them that heard the word but the way as I sayd is the same ever since and it pleases God by the foolishnesse of Preaching to save them that beleeve And as the holy Ghost doth preside the Ministry of preaching so the ordinary Officers and Elders of the Church were sayd to be made Overseeers by the holy ghost to feed the Church of God which he had purchased with his own blood Acts 20.28 And for that Ordinance for which wee have more particularly contended Baptisme we are sayd by one spirit to bee all baptized into one body and usually the administration of the spirit accompanyed baptisme either after it as an appendix or before it as a qualification for that Ordinance as I have already shewed That therefore which makes mee contend for the holy Ordinances of God and value them to that height which through the grace of God I do is that inestimable value and esteeme I put upon the holy spirit of God who is pleased to meete us in these tracts and to offer himselfe to us in these administrations But such is the vanity and perversnesse of men that to avoyd errours they runne ever into extremities We see it in civill things those who have found the pressures of the Tyranny of one man thinke themselves never safe till they have cast off all Government and runne willingly into Anarchy or that which is next to that worst Democracy or the Government of the People Whereas in all things especially in things of God and Religion truth and right is that which lyes in the middle as diverse in its owne nature from either extreame as one extreame is from the other It were certainely absurd in nature because it is our spirits that immediatly act our bodyes for us to fall out with our blood as with a grosse and dul substance that we would have nothing to doe with when as our blood is the Vehiculum of our spirits And it is not lesse absurd for us in the present state wherein we are to cry out of Ordinances as of things grosse and disproportionable to a spirituall life and man when God who knowes our temper better then we our selves uses them to convey his spirit by and makes them tracts and wayes wherein he is wont to meet us To Idolize and make a God of Ordinances as if the opus operatum rendred us spirituall and agreeable to God as it hath beene the fault of Christians in many ages so it is the most uncomely and most unsprituall thing that can be but for the avoiding of this folly and fault to fling them all away as things not at all usefull because not suitable to our carnall reasonings about spirituall things or capable of an abuse is an unspiritualnesse and uncomelynesse no lesse great then the former For my part whilst God
them and admonish them of such things as hee writ then altogether lay foundations or deliver principles that are new to them and with which they are not acquainted Therefore Verse 24. hee admonisheth them that that might remaine with them which they have heard from the beginning as intending rather to confirme what they knew already and have been taught from the beginning by the word and spirit then to add in this exhortation any thing in which they were raw and unprincipled But because John sayes here that they have an unction from the spirit and know all things and Vers 27 that they need not that any man should teach them To conclude that therefore they needed no other Ministry or teaching but the spirit neither Scriptures nor Prophesies were to make John himselfe ridiculous For wherefore did he labour in this Doctrine and wherefore did he teach them at all if there were no need at all of his teaching when Paul sayes as he doth 1 Thes 4.9 Touching brotherly love there is no need that I write unto you for yee your selves are taught of God to love one another Doth he forbeare therefore to exhort the Saints to that duty or rather shew that he need not doubt of the successe of that Doctrine of brotherly love which he and other Apostles inculcates exceedingly because they have a principle taught them by God himselfe and his holy spirit that renders them apt to receive any hints or intimations that way It is a great piece of Oratory when yee can perswade your hearers that the things ye would inforce and make out more fully they assent unto already Therefore John here professes that hee wrote to them because they knew the truth already and upon that very ground that they were taught and did know and that they needed not teaching he was incouraged to the Doctrine and exhortation he gave them It is one of the best arguments we draw from reason to prove there is a God and in the vertue of which we use many others that this point is a thing they need not to be taught this they are all taught of God no man so barbarous no Nation so remote from the knowledge and converse with others that hath not this ingrafted in their nature this notwithstanding we doe not cease to multiply arguments to this purpose to confirme and draw out that principle into use and practice of which there is so faire a beginning layd deep even in the nature of every man living The summe is besides what I have sayd in the beginning that the Apostle would use them to bring all things to the Examen of the spirit and that he would improve the confirmation of the truth of his Doctrine by the principles already layd in them by the spirit of God he uses these expressions that they know all things and need not that any man teach them but as the same anoynting teaches them and that he writes to them because they know the truth already Both to avoyd the seeming to deale with them as learners and beginners altogether unprincipled and untaught when as the things were such as were built upon principles layd into them by the anoynting of the spirit as also to fetch an effectuall rise of arguments for the assenting to such things as they knew and were taught already as there is no better bottome argument as I sayd to prove there is a God then this that they know it already being all taught it of God nor no better foundation to the exhortation of brotherly love with which the Scripture abounds above any one thing then that which Paul layes in the place above quoted out of the Thessalonians That there is no need to bee taught that For that they are all taught of God to love one another We say it is the part of a wise man Rerum manifestarum causas quaerere and it is especially the duty of those who have the care of instructing others to improve principles already lodged into them of which the foundations are most generally and most cleerly layd by the holy spirit in all the Saints for those commonly are of the greatest use and concernment So as here will be no good warant to depart from the use of Scripture or the Ministry of teaching for which God hath in all times and in these particularly in which John wrote indued men with gifts and power to follow vaine Enthusiasmes unlesse we wil put ridiculous and contradictory actions and wayes upon the Doctrines of this holy Apostle and the dictates of the holy spirit Having largely and sufficiently I hope opened these words I proceed now to those other texts I quoted out of Isaiah and Jeremiah That of Jeremiah is in Chap. 31. Vers 31. c. which is certainly a Prophesie of those times in which the Apostle John lived and of that state of the Church in which in the place before discussed he speaks Here the Prophet as it was usuall with the Prophet Isaiah and the rest rising from the Type to the Antitype having before discoursed of the inlarging and bettering of the condition of the Israelites he fals naturally and easily into the discourse of the times of the Gospell and New Testament Behold the day's come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant c. what this Covenant is not hee tells you Verse 32. Not the Covenant hee made with their Fathers when he brought them out of the Land of Aegypt What that Covenant was we shall not need here to consider of but then Verse 33. hee tells you what his Covenant shall be I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will bee their God and they shall be my people and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more The great benefit of this New Covenant in opposition to the Old lyes in this that in this New Covenant God doth not onely propound the tearmes but ingages himselfe to performe the condition whereas the Old Covenant set before you life and death good and evill but ingaged you to the performance of the good without assistance for the Law was without you or to the suffering of evill But in the new Covenant the Law is within written in your hearts by which you are made holy and disposed for all good If you sinne as if any man sayes he has no sin he deceives himselfe and the truth is not in him He will forgive your iniquity and remember your sin no more And because the knowledge of God and his wayes is of the greatest consideration to us for our happinesse and holinesse ye shall be enlightened have the holy unction and be taught of God This inlightening especially in things of the
of Saintship and altogether unproper and unmeet for that state of growth and perfection which they pretend to have attained unto This wile of the Devill is not by all good men easily and at the first observed not doe they consider that by a shew of rationall and spirituall pretences he deprives them at last of all the Ordinances and Institutions of God that his inspirations and revelations may be in stead of them and he at last may be all in all unto them For I beseech you what else is the effect of those methods in these men in whom he hath gained most upon this way but a forme of unsound words by which evill communication they corrups good manners stuffing their Preachings and Writings with an uncouth and most unsavory gibberish or jergon language which the Scriptures owne not which rationall and truely spirituall men understand not till at last growing bolder in the vanities of their minds and expressions they come to this to which some of them are come to make themselves Christ and God and to stile themselves the Lord of Hosts Blasphemies unheard of in other ages and such as are capable of astonishing the most debauch't and prophane spirits and such as tend not onely to the utter subversion of all Religion but as a necessary consequence of that to the destruction and dissolution of all bands of civill government Notwithstanding the horrour of these things yet I must professe when I thinke seriously of them I cannot but rest satisfied in the wisedome and goodnesse of God to his who by letting them see the miserable consequences and effects of opinions so depraved as the casting aside of all Ordinances of worship and yet of that seeming holinesse and spiritualnesse as the pretence of a more immediate and spirituall converse with God is are bounded and kept in order by these exorbitancies and taught that which the Scripture teacheth frequently that The weaknesse of God is stronger then men and the foolishnesse of God is wiser then men and therefore if any will be wise for all these vanities arise from nothing but from a carnall and vaine Philosophating about spirituall things he must become a foole that hee may be wise Now as to be instrumentall to turne sinners and such as erre from the truth from the errour of their ways is a thing of the greatest concernment and highly acceptable to God so is it no way of more consideration then in such errings and mistakings as are about the fundamentals of Religion and Worship and which are so fertile of ill as having gained once a prevalency and authority there is no stoppe or bounds to any thing which a vaine and carnall heart deluded and imboldened by the Devill shall broach to the World for good Doctrine That which immediately debauches the spirit of men this way is as I said a slighting and undervaluing of the Ordinances of worship and holy Institutions and after that a despising and abhorring of them as things carnall and unbecomming a spirituall and raised state But that which is yet a deeper and more bottome root of this untoward production is Secondly Low and meane thoughts of the holy Scriptures the Word of God or which is as bad and arises from the same root of pride and vanity such a bold and ridiculous allegorizing of them under a colour of going farre enough from the Letter and understanding the mystery of them as they obtrude upon you all the vaine reasonings of a carnall heart and that as the Preachings and Writings of these times will abundantly witnesse with such folly and madnesse as that after that rate a man may not despaire to see the Turkish Alcoran brought out of the New Testament or if there be any greater the greatest absurdities and follies that ever entered into the heart of any ignorant or carnall man since the World stood He therefore that would indeavour the recovery of these men or prevent the fallings and disorders of others in these matters of greatest concernment had need speake something to such errings as are about the Scriptures And First Not to speake if there bee any such of those that question the Divine Authority of Scripture as if it had not God for its Author and Originall that which I shall speake something to is that Opinion which seemes to be received amongst some as if it were a straitning to the spirit of God and indignity offered to it to bring spirituall revelations to the touch-stone and Examen of the Scriptures On the other side to me the Scripture seems amongst others to have tâ—o excellent ends for our advantage the one as other Ordinances of God to be a Medium of his owne setting up and which he delights to use for the conveying of himselfe to our spirits in inlightening and sanctifying us and making us partakers of the Divine nature The other to be a certaine and fixt Standard to which we may bring any thing that is broacht under the name of spirituall truth and may thereby as the Scripture sayes Try the spirits whether they be of God may know the voyce of God from the voyce of the Devill and the voyce of the holy spirit and good Angels from that of Satan even when he transformes himselfe into an Angel of light Nor is this any indignity offered to the spirit of God as is before pretended since he is confined to no Rule but what is of his owne forming If the Scriptures were a rule formed by man or by Angels it were unsufferable to subject the spirit of God to any rule so infinitely below it selfe but All Scripture being of Divine inspiration holy men of God speaking as they were moved by the holy Ghost as it is of great use to us against the wiles of the Devill so it is a particular honour to the spirit of God which by the meanes of such a Standard and rule appeares ever like it selfe that is uniforme and constant and which is a high attribute of God without variablenesse and shadow of changing From this good understanding betweene the spirit of God and the word of God the Scriptures dictated by the same spirit it is that in all matter of faith and worship and all things spirituall the appeale is still to the Scriptures as to the visible and lawfull Judge So Christ convincing the Jewes of their sin of unbeliefe tels them There is one that accuseth them even Moses for he wrote of him John 5.45 And as for the Jewes so for all others our Lord saith That he that rejecteth him and receiveth not his word hath one that judgeth him the Word saith hee that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day So Paul gloryes in this that the Thessalonians received the word spoken by them not as the word of man a thing subject to exceptions and limitations but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh in them that beleeve 1 Thes 2.13 Hence when
Christ would convince the Sadduces of the Resurrection he told them They erred not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God Matth. 22.29 and then makes out his assertion by Scripture authority Have yee not read that which was spoken by God unto you And then brings them the very Scripture words I am the God of Abraham c. vers 32. So when Christ would prove himself to be the Messiah he bids them Search the Scriptures John 5.39 You see therefore it is no disparagement to the spirit of God that there is a visible Standard and Rule manifest to all men to which we may have a constant and easie recourse in any doubt or controversie of faith or worship Obj. If any shal object further that though this be not a disparagement or a lessening to the spirit of GOD since the authority of God it selfe and the reason of the thing seems to vindicate it from this Yet the Scriptures are capable of senses and interpretations so various as we see in all experience as it will be difficult to make it a Sandard and Rule of Faith and Worship or a Medium to try the spirits by since it needs the assistance of the spirit to the right interpretation of it selfe Ans I answer that the ignorance or perversnesse of Interpreters can by no meanes take away that Honour from the Scriptures that it should not be the Standard and Rule in things spirituall no more then in civill things the ignorance or peruersenesse of a man in giving the interpretations of the Law should detract from the honour of its being the rule and standard of judging in things civill It is certaine that in respect of the things spoken or in respect of the Speaker the Scripture hath not various and uncertaine senses but it seemes to have so oftentimes in respect of our vanity or ignorance Which leads me into consideration of the second charge I lay to some perverse spirits of these times which by obscure and mysterious Allegories draw a vaile and cast thick Clouds betweene us and the Scriptures and then cry out that they are mysterious obscure darke and hidden but If our Gospel bee hid as the Apostle saith it is hid to them that perish in whom the God of this World hath blinded their eyes Pride or some evill lusting hath blinded their eyes and then they cry out that there is a defect on the part of the object that that is not visible and the way by which they would spiritualize and inlighten it renders it a thousand times darker whilst under a pretence of running far enough from the Letter which they judge carnall and killing they subject it to the vanities and dreamings of every addle head and make the holy Scripture Eccho to the sound that is already in their eares according to that English Proverbe As the foole thinketh so the Bell tincketh But first here they greatly mistake who in alluding to that place of 1 Cor. 3.6 Not of the letter but of the spirit thinke there is an opposition put betwixt the letter of the Gospel and New Testament and the spirituall sense of it for here plainely by Letter is meant the Law and by spirit is meant the Gospel or New Testament in the very letter of it as you have John 1. The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Not as if the Jewes were onely under a literall externall administration which did not affect their spirits God knew how to speake to his in those times but that was not the office of Moses or of the Law which propounded rules of living with promises and threatnings therefore When the Law came sin revived and I dyed saith Paul But the Ministry of the Gospel he cals spirit because the things it declares are quickning enlivening and restoring and such as speaking comparatively also the spirit accompanies much more then it did the Law as being the instrument of the grace of Christ in his Ministry The mistake of this place made Origen first and since very many loose themselves and their auditors in senslesse and idle Allegories supposing that the allegoricall sense was spirituall and the literall killing whereas the literall sense in most scriptures is not onely a spirituall sense but the onely spirituall sense of it and if besides what sense I have given of this place of the Law and the Gospel it reaches further the letter and the spirit is not to be understood of the Exposition of the words but of the fruit and effect of it it then being onely received in the Letter when it affects not the heart nor workes saving changes upon us and then in the spirit when it indeed converts and turnes us and moulds us into that holy frame and forme to which God ordaines his people Now that these expressions of the Spirit and the Letter are meant particularly of the Law and the Gospel appeares evidently in the following verses 7 8 9. For verse 7. speaking of the Letter he calls it The administration of death written and engraven in stones which we know was the Law this hee proves glorious from the glory and shining of Moses countenance In opposition to this he cals the Gospel The ministry of the spirit verse 8. and shews in one point more the excelling glory of this Gospell beyond the Law that it is to abide and remain evermore whereas the other is done away and past verse 10 11. It is true that what the Law is of it self that the Gospel is by accident killing and destructive 2 Corinth 2 16. To the one we are the savour of death unto death c. But though the Gospel be the occasion of damnation to very many notwithstanding it may be called the Spirit or Doctrine of life for as much as God uses it as the instrument or vehiculum of our conversion or new life and that it holds out and offers free reconciliation to us with God whereas the Law taking it simply and alone as it is here taken is the Letter that killeth and the ministry of death prescribing onely an exact rule of life by which comes the knowledge and reviving of sinne which kills without shewing any releife or way to escape And thus have I briefly opened this place which hath been the cause to many of such grosse errings and mistakes But to proceed It is certaine the Scriptures have a plainnesse and easinesse in them to be understood and therefore are said to be A light to our feet and a Lanthorne to our paths and a light shining in a darke place Thy words they give light they give understanding to the simple And if this may be affirmed of the Writings of the Old Testament with much more reason may it be affirmed of those of the New For Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ They had many things formerly in Types and Allegories as things that concerned others more then themselves For it was revealed to them that
not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that Preacht the Gospell unto you 1 Pet. 1.12 Therefore Moses their Prophet was vayled to them But we with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed from glory to glory 1 Cor. 3.13 18. Nor will it be to any purpose to object here that which is affirmed by Peter 2 Pet. 3.16 That some things in Pauls Epistles are hard to be understood For even those things be made easie by diligence prayer to God communication and conference with others God hath made in all things indigency the bond of Society without we need one another we should not value and esteeme one another we should not have love nor converse one with another But who doth this difficulty or hardnesse here spoken of hurt Men unlearned and unstable whose sluggishnesse makes unlearned and whose corruption and depravement makes unstable men that are double in their ends and therefore unstable in their wayes as appeares by their wresting and destroying of the Scriptures which is there spoken of and not only those hard places but other Scriptures also to their owne destruction But if there be any difficulty in Scripture-expressions which God sometimes permits for holy ends as I have said will the way to helpe our selves be to fall a Figurizing and Allegorizing making the Word of God saplesse and fruitlesse by the vanity of our Traditions Or because as the men I complaine against use to doe there are some figurative and allegoricall expressions in the New Testament as when our Saviour calls himselfe a Vine or a Doore which figurative speeches are to ordinary eares as easie to be understood as the most literall shall we take liberty from hence to confound Heaven and Earth And upon every itching of our owne fancy to dissolve the whole Scripture and Word of God into Figures and Allegories Which in stead of inlightning brings us into clouds and darknesse that in that mist the Devill may use as he will I will not deny but some things are to be expounded allegorically The legall Ceremonies may be handled allegorically because they were shadows and types of good things to come as the Paschall Lambe of Christ Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ was the scope and Butt of the Old Testament and therefore the Paschall Lambe the brazen Serpent and a hundred other things are accommodated justly to him also severall Histories upon this account have their allegoricall use so there be a care had to preserve the Historicall truth stable and unshaken So our Saviour accommodates the History of Solomon and Jonas to himselfe as having besides the Historicall truth an use of typifying out him in his office and sufferings and if a man by way of allusion or similitude will allegorize a History as to say that as David overcame Goliah so Christ doth the Devill so the spirit doth the flesh if it be done pertinently may have its use But without all question the literall sense of Scripture especially of the New Testament is principally to be sought after as that you may safely build upon for Doctrines Exhortations and Conclusions Symbolica Theologia non est argumentativa except such as the holy Ghost propounds and interprets in which case wee may safely follow and conclude from Allegories I would not therefore expound any Scriptures allegorically except as before but such as could not be expounded literally as for instance When without the supposition of a type or figure the Scriptures would imply a falshood or when in a Gramaticall sense the words of the Scripture would imply an absurdity as that Christ is a Doore or a Vine or when the literall sense is contradictory to a rule of Faith as when we are commanded to pull out an eye or to cut off a hand or foot but to depart needlesly from the Gramatical and literall sense of Scripture to subtelize it with Figures and Allegories is that which destroyes the majesty and integrity of the Word of God makes it a Nose of Wax and subjects it to the fancies of every crasie and unsound braine so that as in another case one complaines they doe Verborum minutiis rerum frangere pondera And if it be objected as it is by some that if the literall and Gramaticall sense be the Scripture sense the naturall man may be very able in understanding Scripture I Answer that no question they may and to their greater condemnation but yet they want the glory and life of this understanding which is the spirituall impression affecting their hearts and making them God like Those things which are words of life and peace to one are but a dead letter to them there wants that infusion into the words which makes them mighty and converting Changing them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan to God to one it is the word of Men to others it is the word of God the power of God to salvation effectually working in them that beleeve Whereas those absurd Allegorizers we complaine of boast of the spirit and revelations and thinke they have got all when they have mudded and defiled and nonsensifyed a Scripture with their Figures and Allegories though they feele nothing of the spirit and life which should change and convert them into the forme of Doctrine delivered to them And according to this sense must severall Scriptures be accommodated particularly that 1 Cor. 2.14 The naturall man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can hee know them because they are spiritually discerned That which we translate the naturall man is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animalis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab anima the soule so as he is a naturall or an animall man which walkes according to sense or to the flesh that judges of things after a carnall and humane reasoning other things are foolishnesse to him so you have it in the 23. of the former Chapter We Preach Christ crucified to the Greeks foolishnesse And in the words of the Text The things of the spirit of God are foolishnesse unto him Yet the notion of Christ Crucified as it is layd downe in Scripture in plaine and significant words is certainely intelligible to an animall man but the spirituall reason of it which is the beauty and glory of it which should alter and convert and transforme by beholding that he sees not and therefore though custome and commonnesse have taken away the seeming absurdity of such a notion so as men can beare it and take it up and professe it with others yet the spirituall beauty of it which is the taking and converting thing they see not As the eye of sense sees the figure and superficies of a thing but cannot tell the reason of it for want of a principle to judge by so a naturall man that hath no other
which is administred to us by the mediation of Ordinances which are outward and subjected to our senses Answ 3 But then thirdly I would have these men consider the true nature and reason of this word spirituall as it stands in order to the discourse wee have in hand The notion of spirituall lies not in this that one is more raised and improved in parts then another as when the French say C'est vn homme bien spirituel they meane a man of good parts or of a raised spirit Though I very much feare that this goes farre for spirituall with many and a great deale of that language and converse which is called spirituall is nothing but the expressions of men of a more raised reason or exoticke and extravagant fancy which because the language is unusual goes amongst a great many ignorant and well meaning men for spirituall as appeares by their inordinate affecting certaine preachings and writings which a sober holy and indeed spirituall man would looke upon with other eyes Wherein the lucke is that such kind of Authors are best and most readily understood by those who as the Apostle saith are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth which suites very happily with such Teachers who as the same Apostle saith Know neither what they say nor wherof they affirme Spiritualnesse therefore lies not in the following or affecting such Preachers or Authors or wayes as come under a shew of raised or improved reason or fancy Nor doth it lye in this that such waies or worship are more proportionable or more suitable to the guise and fashion of the next or a more raised state If any one could by the spirit of prophesie or divine revelation peepe into another World and see what the converse of that shall be such a search would be of excellent use to us as it was to the Prophets of old who inquired and searched diligently after the times that were to come 1 Pet. 1.10 But would be no warrant to alter or change from the way of life or worship of the present state for then Jeroboam had hit it though not in his end perhaps yet in the thing who by altering the times and places of worship did but anticipate Gospell practice when it should be lawfull every where and at all times and seasons to offer up sacrifices acceptable and agreeable to God Then also it had beene more spirituall in the last state or times of the Jewes to signifie Christs death by breaking of bread then by slaying of Oxen or by worshipping God without Preistly adornments and ceremonies rather then with them Some of the Prophets Isaiah particularly and David saw farre into the way of that state that was then to come yet neither did the one nor the other nor any of the holy Prophets disswade from the practice of the ceremonies or ordinances of that time though such as the Apostle since hath called beggarly rudiments but incouraged and exhorted still to the constant persevering in them onely blamed them when they were alone without holinesse of life and conversation and faith in God which they all tended to and taught who of all the Prophets understood the way of a spirituall converse more then David as appeares by his frequent calling upon the spirit bemoaning the absense of glorying in the enjoyment of it and yet this excellent and spirituall David thought it not a carnall and unspirituall thing to converse with God in the Ordinances of that state wherein he lived though he saw so clearly and happily into another and better but longed after the ceremonious worship of those times and envied even the condition of the Sparrowes that found a resting in Gods house and by Gods Altar from which he was excluded And if we consider it particularly how absurd would such a thing be the wise God hath fitted the liquour to the vessell our way of converse with him in things spirituall according to our present receptive faculty how ridiculous would it be to suite the garment of a man to a childs body or because a child hath a principle in him that is rationall to labour in that uncapable age to improve that principle by rationall discourses and discipline So and much more absurd and vaine is it to suite and proportion the converse of a future and more raised state to the lownesse and incapacity of a former and more weake and childish one yet nothing is more frequently done by these men wee have beene speaking of by which meanes it fals out that being wholy unfit for the converse of a more excellent and future state and neglecting and sleighting that way of converse which God hath made their portion for the present they loose the blessing of their present state and all those influences which God conveyes to us by mediums of his owne fitting and in stead of increasing in light which they so much pretend to they grow vaine in their imaginations and have their foolish hearts darkened as their abominable and cursed opinion evidently makes appeare by that Prince of darknesse who transformes himselfe into an Angell of light So that to conclude it is the word of institution for the present state in which we live that gives the notion of spiritualnesse to Ordinances and actions and neither the vanity of our reasonings nor a pretended or reall sight into the state of those times that are to come Coroll To all this and as a Corollary to this discourse I would adde this That never any state or way of worship was changed without a very great visibility and notoriety to those whom it concerned When by the hands of Moses there was but a graduall change and a greater formalizing of the worship of the same Covenant no man will denie me but that it was by the appointment of God made so visible and so publike as there was nothing left of obscuritie or doubtfulnesse in it Moses the Minister of so great a change was a man who had his Letters of credence from Heaven written in the most visible Characters a man that wrought ordinarily many and great miracles that was owned by God by many heavenly apparitions and yet besides all this when the rule of life and worship was given God himselfe talked to them from Heaven as he sayes Exod. 20.22 and after the greatest preparation of the people for receiving those heavenly Oracles that there might be no doubt but that they were from God Mount Sinai whither the people assembled was altogether in a smoake because the Lord descended upon it in fire and the smoake thereof ascended as the smoake of a Furnace and the whole mount quaked greatly and when the voyce of the Trumpet sounded long and waxed lowder and lowder God answered him by a voyce Verse 18 19. Of which voice of God the people were so assured As they besought Moses that he would speake with them and that God might not speake with them least they