instinct and they do not depend upon the consent of the will or discourse of reason The latter kind of these lustings are such which have gained or gotten the consent of the will unto them and hereby they conceive as James speaketh Jam. 1.15 i. e. are made pregnant like a woman that is with Child so have such lustings as these the Act or Deed it self of sin in their womb or bowels Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished i.e. actually or externally perpetrated or committed bringeth forth death Then when lust hath conceived c. This clearly supposeth that there is or may be a lust or lusting which in this respect is Virgin like hath no corruption of the act of sin in it wherein the act of sin is not formed or shaped This kind of lust we speak of is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek word expresseth it the first motion or moving of nature in a man which is exerted or put forth before a man intends thinks or knows any thing of it This kind of lust may be troublesome unto a man and find him inward exercise and work more than enough to suppress it as it riseth that so the will and consent may not touch it or come at it yet this is not the lusting of the Flesh which doth much obstruct the Spirit in his way or prejudice the souls being filled with him Paul was a man that was abundantly filled with the Spirit and yet he saith that he knew that in him that is in his Flesh as he interprets dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7.18 And that he saw ver 23. i. e. discerned felt or perceived another Law in his members warring against the Law of his mind and bringing him into captivity i. e. endeavouring to bring him into captivity to the Law of sin which was in his members meaning unto it self by an Hebrew kind of Dialect which many times uses and repeats the Antecedent for the Relative I thank my God saith the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 1.4 alwaies on your behalf for the grace of God not for his grace which is given unto you c. So again Eph. 4.16 From whom the whole body maketh encrease of the body meaning of it self See also Luke 3.19 Now the Apostle saying That in him i.e. in his flesh there dwelt no good thing meaning but abundance of that which is naught or dangerous according to the Rule often upon occasion delivered unto you viz. That Adverbs of denying signifie the contrary of these words with which they are joyned implies and signifies that the fleshly part of him which he calleth his members ver 23. i. e. his body was ever and anon occasioning his spirit or soul being so near in conjunction with it to bubble or put forth in some vain foolish or sinful desire or other which made him work without end partly in lamenting over himself by reason of them and their mingling themselves with all his services and spiritual actings and doings Partly in a solicitousness and careful watching over his heart or will lest they came to be confederate with them in respect of this turmoil he still had with his flesh and body ver 24. He crieth out O wretched or miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body or from a body of death i.e. From a body that worketh or createth all sorrow trouble and care to me I thank God saith he through Jesus Christ our Lord meaning that that deliverance from that body of death he speaks of which was procured unto him by Jesus Christ and which he had in his eye as coming apace towards him provoked him to a signal thankfulness unto God for his grace towards him in such a deliverance and so concludeth the Chapter So then with my mind I my self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same person I or he or that man that is I serve the Law of God but with my flesh the Law of sin With my mind I my self serve the Law of God that is yield obedience unto it with an intent and desire hereby to honour it with my mind I my self thus serve it In this Discourse Paul maketh a plain opposition between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I and my self or between him and himself affirming that he did many things which he himself did not and was resolved not to do I man may be said in the general and common language to do whatsoever he doth upon any terms whatsoever viz. what he doth causelesly what he doth contrary to the desire of his soul and which he doth thorough violence of temptations c. But a man himself cannot in emphaticalness of expression be said to do any thing but what he doth with his heart and soul with a full and free consent of his will c. And so our Apostle who was very far from flattering himself yet acquits himself from that which was done by him contrary to the bent and frame of his heart and without consent of his will by casting it upon sin that dwelt in him i. e. that sinful weakness which kept possession of his Flesh Now if I do that which I would not it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me It is no more I meaning that all the while he did that which was evil and sinful for him to do with his entire will and full consent it was he himself that did it and not the sin or sinful weakness that dwelt in him but now saith he since the frame of my heart and bent of my will standeth against that which I do in this kind from hencesorth I may truly speaking Evangelically discharge my self from the doing of it and arraign that weakness which inseparably hangeth upon me as the Author and Actor of it I have stood somewhat the longer upon the opening of this passage of the Apostle because I desire with as much evidence and satisfaction as may be to make out this unto you that so you need not be discouraged in the course or way of your endeavours to be filled with the Spirit by such kind of lustings of the flesh within you as these we have spoken so much of though they should still haunt and follow you in as much as you have heard that he that was filled almost to the brim with the Spirit was notwithstanding obnoxious to such a lusting Such Lusts as these do not intoxicate bewitch or drink up your Reason Judgments or Understandings but they may remain whole and intire unto you them notwithstanding for any spiritual work or service and consequently for comporting with the Spirit of God in order to his filling you with himself But Secondly Those words of James Then when Lust hath conceived Sect. 14 it bringeth forth sin c. as plainly shew that Lust also may be so intreated and dealt with as to be made pregnant and big with the
condition of comprehending what is the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge He doth not speak of a full or absolute comprehension of this love For this no Creature whatsoever how deeply and firmly soever rooted and grounded in love is capable of Yea the Apostle himself presently speaking of the love of Christ saith it passeth knowledge meaning that the compass or riches of this love are greater and more vast than to be fully estimated and computed by men yea or by any finite or created understanding whatsoever but he speaketh of such a comprehension or apprehension rather which the nature of man may by means and helps be advanced and carried up unto which is a comprehension comparatively I mean in respect of that narrow imperfect and obscure knowledge hereof which is generally found amongst the Saints themselves because the hearts of so few of them serve them to be at the costs and charges of that which is more raised and would do double the service of the other But first What doth he mean by being rooted and grounded in love Sect. 4 Secondly Why doth he require such a qualification as this a being rooted and grounded in love to put them into a capacity of comprehending the heights and depths and lengths and breadths thereof of the love of Christ I suppose these dimensions here spoken of do denote four special things considerable in the mystery of the love of Christ First The breadth of it I conceive imports the extent of the love of Christ as it is held forth and declared in the Gospel in reference to the Persons to whom it is vouchsafed and born As concerning this dimension the breadth or extent of it he had a little before viz. in the former part of this Chapter and all along the second taught them that it was Commensurable unto the World and that it did not contain it self within the bounds of the Jewish Nation but dilated and spread it self over the whole World and rejoyced over all the Nations of the Earth Secondly The length of it seems to note the duration of it which reacheth from Eternity to Eternity or in the Scripture expression from Everlasting to Everlasting It was conceived in his breast of old before the Foundations of the World were laid from thence it brake forth and discovered itself in time and now it runs along and hath continued in and with the World and will continue together with the glorious fruits and effects of it to Eternity Thirdly The depth of this love may point at either the great and most profound Condescention whereunto Christ was drawn by it for the benefit of men as when he stooped from the height of all glory in the highest Heavens to seek for a lost World in the heart or lower parts of the Earth having undergone by the way a most dolorous painful and ignominious death or else at the peculiar manner of the efficacy or working of this love in that it wrought downwards even to the depth and bottom as it were of that misery wherein the World lay plunged and out of which there had been no redemption for it had not the love of Christ we speak of by its most adorable virtue strength and vigour made its way to it and wrought the Cure Fourthly and lastly By the height of this love the Apostle questionless signifieth either the lifting up and magnifying of it self over and above the high misdemeanours and provocations of the World by which it was not turned out of its way nor so much as put to the least stand Or else the efficacious and successful tendency of it to raise the blessedness of those that should reap the fruits of it exceeding high Now to put you into a capacity to comprehend these dimensions of the love of Christ to comprehend them I say as they may be comprehended by you to your unspeakable comfort and joy you must be rooted and grounded in love But what is it to be rooted and grounded in love For this was the former question propounded I answer Some by the love here spoken of wherein the Apostle requests of God that they might be rooted and grounded understand the love of God that is that love which God beareth unto mankind and expresseth in the Gospel But though it be good to be rooted and grounded in this love yet is not this the meaning of the Holy Ghost here As for other reasons so more especially for this That this love is upon the matter and for substance the same thing which he would have them to be in a capacity of comprehending For the love of God and of Christ are in effect the same Now to be rooted and grounded in any love whatsoever cannot be said to be a means to make us able to comprehend in the sense lately declared the same love Because it must thus be comprehended before we can be rooted and grounded in it Therefore doubtless the love here spoken of is that affection of love which is or ought to be in men whether towards God or towards man or both though I judge it best to understand it of both But what is it to be rooted in this love Rooting in a tree implies a kind of conveying working or infinuating it self into the Earth by those parts of it which we call the root which are given unto it by God in Nature for that end and purpose By this means it comes to have a kind of firm footing and standing in the earth where also being once rooted it grows Now to be rooted in love seems to import some such thing as this Namely that a man hath by the use of his Reason Judgment Understanding and Conscience faculties and powers given unto him for this and such like purposes as it were conveyed himself into the midst of such Reasons Motives and Arguments whereof there are plenty in the Scriptures yea and many in the book of Nature and Conscience also which are effectual and proper to fill him heart and soul with these affections of love to God and men Many there are that may be said in a sense and that according to truth to love God and to love men that yet are not rooted and grounded in this affection Either they have conceived or taken hold of some light thoughts perswading them to the love of God and men or convincing them of their duty in this kind Or it may be there being in men a kind of natural love to God as in Children to their Parents they are under some impressions of this affection But then a person man or woman may properly be said to be rooted and grounded in love when they have considered over and over and throughly beaten their hearts and souls and consciences with such considerations and motives which are as natural and proper not only to provoke and ingage them to love both God and men but also to continue resolute and firm in
how many pretenders have we to little less than a Prophetick Unction to mystical discoveries to a deep and further insight into the mind of God in the Scriptures and to the understanding of things there whose Notions notwithstanding the pretended fruits of such their high Anointings and Revelations being weighed in the Balance of the Sanctuary are found light and to have nothing of the mind of God or of Christ in them Therefore in the first place unless these discoveries which are pretended unto and held forth with the greatest confidence shall commend themselves for truth unto the judgments and understandings of sober and judicious men much versed and exercised in the Scriptures either from their own light or evidence or else shall be made out by light of Argument and Demonstation Whether from the Scriptures or clear Principles in reason to be real truths and such things that are every waies worthy the Wisdom Righteousness and Holiness of God they are not to be looked upon as proceeding from any fulness of the Spirit in their Authors but as the exertions and puttings forth of a Spirit of vanity and delusion in men For certainly God would not have sent Christ Jesus in the end of the World to seal vp Revelations and Prophesies and to set bounds unto the Children of men and afterward send these men to gather up what Jesus Christ hath scattered and to make perfect what he hath left imperfect Wko knoweth not that the New Testament is sealed with a Curse with dread and terrour unto the man or woman that shall either make any breach upon that which is there delivered by diminishing ought thereof and so likewise unto any that shall bring any new or further Revelation than what is already brought in there Secondly In case by the opportunity and advantage of Education Sect. 21 liberty for Study and searching into Authors and Writers or the advantage of pregnancy of Wit quickness of Apprehensions or the like any man shall attain unto a greater dexterity or ability to unfold the Scriptures and to bring many of the secrets thereof to light which have been hidden from the eyes of others this doth not necessarily argue a fulness of or a being filled with the Spirit at least in the sense wherein we have prosecuted the Doctrine hitherto i. e. a filling with the Spirit as sanctifying unless it shall appear by their lives and waies that they are really and throughly perswaded of the truth and certainty of these things which they hold forth from the Scriptures It is true many men may do great Services for the Christian World and for the Saints and that by opening the great Deeps or Fountains of the Scriptures and may cause many beams of light and Spiritual understanding to break forth and many waies of Wisdom there to appear and yet may not believe As it is with a fained Story though there may be some kind of rationality in it yet the rationality of it doth not therefore argue its truth and verity just so men may maintain the reasonableness of the Scriptures and consequently many great truths therein contained they may argue excellently and shew how one thing giveth light unto another and yet nevertheless at the bottom there may be nothing else but uncertainties and doubtings of the truth of all the Story and this hollowness and defection at the bottom and core and root of the heart is like to break out and bewray it self in such a kind of life and conversation which is unsutable unto the tenour of Scripture and unto the Genius Nature and light of the glorious Gospel which they declare or preach unto men The Reason of the Character or sign last mentioned Sect. 22 whereby to judge of any mans being filled with the Spirit is because it is the proper work of the Spirit to open and reveal unto men the Scriptures and the mind of God there so that when any person man or woman shall be found to excell in such a way upon the terms and with the cautions lately specified I mean to be richly acquainted with the mind of God in the Scripture it must needs argue a great measure of the Spirit of God in them For it is I say the property of the Spirit of God to reveal the mind of God in the Scriptures and to reveal such and such truths which have lain dormant in the bodies of the Scriptures wound up and unpublished For the Spirit of God hath reserved and set apart some particular portion of truth which is appropriate to every Age and Generation that cometh over the World which is to be opened unto it Some conceive that the seven Seals do respect several Ages and times wherein several truths are to be revealed as that in such an Age and Time when one Seal was broken up there was such a part of the mind of God let out and so at the breaking up of a second then cometh forth another part of the mind of God This is clear and experience teacheth us that every Generation and every Age have had some sealed or fallow ground of Scripture broken up unto them some considerable passage of Scripture that hath never seen the Sun that hath never been so generally understood or known by men as in the present Generation so that it being the proper work of the Spirit of God to take away the vail and covering which hath been upon the Scriptures when he findeth some person whom he doth much delight in he will single him out for this service 1 Cor. 2.10 11 c. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God That is according to Scripture Language teacheth men to search and to find out by searching the deep things of God i. e. such Counsels of his which do not lie in the surface of the Scriptures such things which cannot be seen at the first cast of a mans eye For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now the Notions which are bred in the Mind and in the Nature of God are of another sort of a quite different nature from those which are ingendred and conceived in the mind of men even as those impressions in bruit beasts are of a far other nature and kind from those which are in men and being of another nature and kind and also inferiour to those Notions or Impressions which are in man they cannot understand or comprehend those Notions or Impressions and those Principles of Action that are in men and by which they order and steere their course The Reason is because these Notions or Impressions that are in Men are of a superiour kind to those in Beasts and out of the reach of them or any other created being especially beneath themselves So that though it should be supposed that
we call the in-bread is given into the Dozen there is nothing properly paid or given for it bat only for the Dozen The Kingdom of God the salvation of the soul the World which is to come are like the Dozen he that will have this must pay for it I mean in labour and endeavours and in looking after it Whereas this present World is like unto the in-bread which will be given in by God to better the bargain So likewise when our Saviour adviseth thus Joh. 6.27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life he plainly gives us to understand that the World which is to come requires labour of men to come by Now our Saviour was not of a light and unsavoury Spirit he did not jest with men he did not exhort men to strain and toyl at the lifting of a Feather no he was most grave and most sober and serious and weighty in all his Counsels therefore when he counselleth men not to labour for that which perisheth but for that which endureth for ever he doth consequently intimate unto them that unless there be industry used and much solicitousness of mind things of this nature will not be obtained The Son of man who hath these things to give will not give them unto men who look not after them And withal our Saviour doth plainly and clearly imply that this World doth not require a like labour and diligence at least comparatively Labour not for the meat which perisheth as if he should say You may have such meat which will suffice you if you will but labour for the other Therefore that Generation of men and women we speak of greatly erre in their thoughts about the terms of the two Worlds judging the World which is to come to be like the Fig-trees spoken of by the Prophet Nahum c. 3.12 with their first-ripe Figs which if they be but a little shaken fall into the mouth of the Eater So these conceit that the Golden Gates of Heaven if they be but touched with the least of a mans fingers will fly open and give him entrance that the great things of Eternity will come upon them before they be aware that a little time spent now and then when their ease and their profits will give way will cause heaven and happiness to bow down unto them whereas their Judgment of this present World is that both the inner and outer man with their highest contendings sweatings and strainings of themselves are all little enough or rather too little to prevail with it to bless them or give out its strength unto them It is not unlike but that the conceipt we now speak of within them may be sed with another Notion or Conceipt viz. that the World which is to come goeth by an unchangeable Decree of Predestination and Election and that Heaven is conferred upon men by virtue of a Deed of Gift of as ancient a Date as Eternity upon which account they act with a remiss and cool spirit for the obtaining of this expecting that the Decree of God from Eternity shall bring Salvation and the blessedness of the World to come upon them with an high hand though they themselves should do nothing whereas they have a contrary conceipt as if God had made no Decree concerning mens being wealthy and great in this World but that all these things do come about by diligence and industry and by a wise contrivement of their own in this behalf it is very likely that there is some touch or other of such a poyson that lieth near the root of the hearts of some But to the Persons now under reproof we shall at present say no more but this That if Mary chose the better part in chusing to sit at the feet of Jesus Christ to hear the words of Eternal Life from his lips in comparison of Martha's choice which was to be imployed about other things though otherwise as appears a worthy woman Certainly such persons who neglect the opening of the Heavens and the Visions of the Almighty when they descend upon the World to gratifie the Flesh with ease pleasure getting of money c. chuse the far worser part which will in the end turn to a portion of everlasting shame and contempt unto them if they perish in their choice Mary chose a being filled with the Spirit this was a blessed choice indeed these men chose a being emptied of the Spirit of God The Day is coming like an armed man upon them when the words which are now spoken in their ears will become a Sword which will pass through their souls A second sort of Persons against whom the face of the Doctrine delivered is set to reprove them are such who though they have not as yet Sect. 3 with the First of the Three wholly forsaken the Ministry of the Gospel nor seem with the second to be but loosely and indifferently affected to it yet they do take a course in a short time to be emptied of the Spirit as well as either of the former and this is by turning aside from the Ministry where it is lively and powerful teaching wholsome Doctrine as Faith towards God and Repentance from Dead Works where it promoteth Godliness with an high hand and consequently is like to fill men and women with the Spirit of God And turning unto and following a Ministry that is like to fill them with wind and flatulent humours with fond Notions and Conceipts either above or besides or contrary unto that which is written The Apostle speaketh of some Col. 2.18 Vainly puft up in their fleshly minds or irregularly puffed up Even as it is with some bodies that seem to be very fat and full and fair and yet their fat is but a loose kind of flesh or it may be it is nothing else but some dropsical humours which any kind of sickness will quite cancell and commonly such persons fall into the most desperate Consumptions of all when that loose fat forsaketh them Even so there are many loose Professors amongst us and have been in all Ages who have swollen in their minds and conceipts into a great bulâ— They judge themselves to be like the Children of Anack in spiritual matters and other Professors about them but as Grashoppers as men and women of low and weak and inconsiderable stature in respect of themselves Now there is and for the most part alwaies hath been such a Ministry of the Gospel so called which is apt to work this way Though to speak properly it is no Ministry of the Gospel but only a kind of counterfeit of it which seeks to commend it self unto the World for such yea and to disparage that which is truly and indeed such in comparison of it self But of that Generation of men and women which forsake such a Ministry of the Gospel which is savoury wholsome and sound where the Mind and Counsel of God concerning the peace and salvation of
these high and excellent deportments of themselves in the World or as if persons in any degree charitable did perform all these worthy things in their perfection But that the nature of charity is such and that the means vouchsafed by God to advance this grace in their souls are such that men and women may be raised and enlarged in it to such a perfection or degree as to be in a capacity of doing all these great and excellent things formerly mentioned So when Paul saith We have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father his meaning is not that every one who received this Spirit in any measure or degree doth actually thus cry or is in a present and immediate capacity to do it but that this Spirit being once received may be so comported with and entreated by men as that he will advance his presence to such a fulness or degree that they shall be able by means of that strong testimony to cry Alba Father This is the first thing to be remembred by the way A second thing Sect. 15 is that when the Apostle saith That the Spirit speaking of the Spirit of God witnesseth with our spirits that we are the Children of God i.e. as we expounded mightily fortifies and strengthens that Testimony of our own spirit in this behalf He doth not suppose that every man and woman who are more than ordinarily raised in this perswasion or apprehension of themselves I mean that they are the Children of God receive the abundance of this testimony or perswasion from the Spirit of God For very possible it is that men and women who are not the Children of God but far from it may be very strongly and confidently perswaded that they stand in this relation unto God But certain it is that such a perswasion as this in such persons cometh not either in whole or in part from the Spirit of God because he never joyneth in any Testimony whereby an untruth is confirmed There may be another Spirit a Spirit of delusion that standeth at their right hand ready to fall in with them at such a turn as this and it is like will make their perswasion great within them Our Saviour Joh. 16.2 giveth an account of some that would think that they did God good service when they put to death the Disciples of Christ one of the most horrid Acts of Impiety which could lightly be committed And the Jews themselves with whom the Lord Christ had to do in the daies of his flesh were as high and as confident as confidence it self could make them that they were the Children of God yea the first-born Children of God and if there were no more Children of God in the World yet they must needs be of this Generation Now most true it is that this confidence in such persons is in a sense supernatural too for certainly the Spirit of Error and Delusion which standeth at the right hand of sinful and unworthy persons doth suggest this unto them that they are the Children and Saints of God and falleth in with them after the manner of the Spirit of God and if he finds but the least mutterings or whisperings this way in such persons whose spiritual estate and condition he knows much better than themselves do he will fall in with might and main according to his manner of working and operation to help to raise and fortifie this perswasion in them he will give them of this Wine to drink until their senses be bewitched and besotted and by this means their Judgments and understandings bear them in hand with the highest confidence that they are the only Sons and Daughters of God and therefore we must take heed and learn to distinguish and not believe the confident testimony and assurance which some will pretend unto of being the Sons and Daughters of God we must carefully distinguish between the Spirit of God himself and the Spirit of Error and Delusion who as I said doth but lie in wait to hear the Spirit of a man whisper whom he knows not to be a Child of God but to be a wicked proud formal and hypocritical person and then he will fall in amain with him to strengthen his confidence And therefore in respect of the degree and measure of his confidence haply it may be as well with him that is deluded by Sathan as it is with him that is strengthened and raised by the Spirit of God himself Yet in respect of the manner of it and several circumstances that do attend this false perswasion and confidence it may easily be discerned from that which is true The Apostles speaks Col. 2.18 of some persons that were vainly puft up with their fleshly minds whose hearts were not established with grace but with meats meaning that these carnal observations had puffed them up with swelling thoughts of themselves Therefore it is to be considered and remembred that the persons with whose Spirits the Holy Ghost joyns in Testimony that they are the Children of God are only such who are the Children of God indeed i.e. who approve themselves for such by an innocent blameless and fruitful Conversation and particularly who reverence the Counsel and Appointments of God in the Ministry of the Gospel by attending hereupon from day to day If we had time we might give this Item unto you Sect. 16 that the Spirit of God which doth bear up the heart and conscience against all fears and doubtings and contrary apprehensions and the like this Spirit I say is received by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Ministry of it even as it was in the daies of the Apostles Received ye the Spirit saith the Apostle Paul Gal. 3.2 by the Works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith It was the hearing of the Doctrine of the Gospel by which the Spirit of Adoption entred into them and this Spirit came down together with the Gospel from heaven to attend and accompany that in the Ministry and the Preaching of it by the Apostles and others that had part and fellowship with them in that work Even as the Spirit of fear or bondage which the Apostle speaketh of went forth or issued into the World by the Ministry of the Law and upon the giving of it upon Mount Sinai unto which the Apostle alludes when he saith Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear meaning that they had received it namely in their Fore Fathers when they were in their loyns But now saith he you have received namely by the Gospel and the Ministry thereof the Spirit of Adoption by which you cry Alba Father Now then when you shall find men and women that are full of confidence and assurance that they are the Children of God if this Spirit have entred into them upon the hearing of a false Gospel or upon the Preaching of another Jesus and not the Christ of God this is a dangerous sign that it is a Spirit of Delusion
that possesseth and filleth them with a windy confidence that they are the Children of God when indeed they are not because the Spirit of God is not wont to go forth nor to enter into the hearts and consciences of men but where the glorious Gospel of God is received in the truth of it We could instance in some particulars for there are as the Apostle telleth us 1 Cor. 8.5 in his daies in respect of Gods and Lords many that were Gods and Lords so called but saith he unto us there is but one c. So the truth is at this day there are amongst us and round about in this City and near to us Gospels many and Preachers many but in the mean time there is but one Gospel for us for those that know the truth as it is in Jesus And yet many of these Gospels we speak of have their spirits that do attend upon them and for the most part they do wait upon these very Gospels and Ministries that are the rankest of all others filling the Receivers of them with the greatest assurance and confidence that they are the Children of God and in the right way of worshipping and serving of him There is a Gospel which joyns Baptism with Faith in Christ by way of necessity to Justification and so to Salvation even as the Jewish Converts did Circumcision in the Apostles days of which Paul saith unto them Gal. 5.2 I say unto you if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing meaning if ye be Circumcised with an opinion of being justified thereby Christ shall profit you nothing There is another Gospel preached amongst us which teacheth you in effect and underhand yea by express and near-hand consequence that if you be elected how loosely wickedly prophanely and desperately soever ye shall live yet you are in no danger of perishing yea and that however you shall go to work God will bring you in one time or other and that he will so far change the state of affairs with you that you shall neither will nor chuse but to repent and so be saved together with several other Doctrines and Notions of like dangerous consequence and import Again thirdly Another Gospel so called ye have preached amongst you which calleth you from the Scriptures and the light of life which shineth there unto that which they call a light within them though that light be never so dark As if the Scriptures and the light within men so far as it is light and not darkness were at odds Or as if the conveying of Scripture light into the hearts and Judgments of men were like to obscure darken or obstruct and not rather to encrease brighten and perfect that light in men This kind of Gospel is of as dangerous consequence as any of the other A fourth Gospel preached abroad in the World is that all that ever will or shall be justified were justified from Eternity and that upon this account God seeth no sin in them Yea there is a Gospel which preacheth down all Preaching and denieth the usefulness thereof Many other Gospels there are so called in the World which though they be at great variance amongst themselves yet they all agree in enmity and opposition to the true Gospel of Christ like Sampson's Foxes But there is no end of enumerating these high and by kind of strains which men run into from day to day thinking thereby still to better their condition Godward As you find many in a lingring condition with sickness that think if they should but change into such a Room or into such a Bed they should be better So when men have not made a serious and consciencious improvement of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ whilest they did attend and live under the Ministry and Preaching of it but find themselves dissatisfied in their hearts and souls and not enjoying themselves upon terms of that content which they desire they think now that if they do but go forth into such other waies and walk in such other paths that then they shall be made great then they shall reign like Kings and Princes in the Profession of Jesus Christ Now the great Enemy of their Peace and of the Salvation of their souls lies in wait to meet with such occasions and advantages as these are and therefore if such Notions do but begin to bud and put forth in their first conceptions or that the hearts of men do but begin to hanker that way the Devil helps them with his perswasions to go on and then men are very apt to be perswaded that now the Spirit of God is come to them and that he doth procure them that great peace of God which they could never attain nor find from his hand before I cannot pass by that Expression though but lately handled in the Scriptures now opened 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it carrieth in it so pregnant a Testimony against that dangerous Doctrine which of late hath began to make head amongst us viz That the Holy Ghost is not God Now if it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit himself and not any other inferiour spirit subservient unto him who bears witness with the Spirits of the Saints all the World over that they are the Children of God then can he be no other than God himself who filleth all places with his presence Thus then we see a third thing Sect. 17 by means of which they that are filled with the Spirit must needs be possessed with an assurance of their attonement and peace made with God by Jesus Christ viz. they have the Spirit of Adoption within them testifying aloud and with authority with their spirits that they are the Children of God and consequently that their sins are fully attoned in his sight And this was the former particular of the two propounded by which men and women must needs be prepared and put into a rich capacity of enjoying free Communion with God We shall not need I suppose to add any thing to prove or shew that a clear assurance of a mans Attonement made with God opens an effectual door unto him for a free Communion with God This is lightsome and evident enough of it self especially if we take the word Attonement in a compleat signification I mean as it includes and carrieth with it grace and acceptation of a mans person with God For when God is actually reconciled unto a Creature and hath accepted an attonement for his sin He doth not only cease to be an Enemy unto him remaining still as a Stranger or as one from whose anger or displeasure the Person reconciled and attoned is indeed free but hath no further interest in him but upon this said reconciliation unto this Creature he becometh a most real Friend unto him and admits him into his special grace and favour Amongst men it is oft times otherwise a man doth not remain an Enemy after Attonement for that properly is imported in the word Attonement But