〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR A BEING FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT Wherein is proved That it is a Duty incumbent on all men especially Believers that they be filled with the Spirit of God The gracious Counsels of God the Laws and Terms of his proceeding with men in order hereunto with Rules laid down whereby to judge whether men be filled with the Spirit of God or a contrary Spirit Lâ—kewise the way and means whereby men may be filled with the Spirit of God are all largely opened from the Scriptures AS ALSO The Divinity or Godhead of the HOLY GHOST Asserted and the Arguments brought against it throughly Examined and Answered The Grace of God â—n the fulness and freeness thereof evinced and many things relating to the Saints Communion with God and God dwelling in them Explained The necessity of the Ministry of the Gospel called the Ministry of the Spirit discussed and the usefulness thereof maintained With several other things of great importance in order to the benefit and peace of men All heretofore delivered in several SERMONS from Ephes 5.18 By that Pious Learned and Laborious Servant of God Mr. JOHN GOODWIN Sometime Minister of the Gospel in Coleman-Street LONDON And published after his Death for the Common good of all But if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of 〈◊〉 body ye shall live Rom. 8.13 And they chose Stephen a man full of the Holy Ghost Acts 6.5 Quench not the Spirit 1 Thes 5.19 How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that as him Luke 11.13 Basil Homil. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by E. C. for Henry Eversden at his Shop under the Crown-Tavern in West-Smithfield 1670. THE PUBLISHERS TO THE Ingenuous and Christian READER Good Reader THat great Law of Nature that hath uttered it self from the Lips of some of the Sons thereof That no man is born for himself only but the rest of Mankind do challenge a share in him or rather the whole of him And this by the Interpretation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ himself is the Sum or whole of the Second Table of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments and contains our whole Duty to our Neighbour viz. That we love him that is all men as our selves This great and Royal Law both of Nature and Grace hath occasioned this Discourse in thy hand to become publick The nature of it being spiritual and sublime carrying much of the peace and inward felicity of men and women in it hath imposed a necessity upon us not to confine it amongst our selves but to present it to the publick view of all whose hearts shall serve them to make a diligent and consciencious perusal thereof for their Accommodation in the things of their Present and Everlasting Peace and Welfare For this is certain that when any man or numbers of men have any Treasure in their hands to bless the World withal the Law of God obligeth them to minister unto the wants and necessities thereof they being generally so craving by reason of that ignorance and darkness that men are filled withal We shall not need to say much as to the Author of this Discourse nor to the time when these things were delivered by him in the course of his Publick Ministry it being sometime since and we question not but that there are many yet alive of those that heard it who have not lost the sense and spiritual resentment thereof but have many of those great Principles of light and truth remaining alive in power and great strength within them and will be glad of the opportunity of a second review of them The Author himself which is now at rest having finished the work which God judged meet for him and for which he was sent into the World was a man whose heart was set within him to serve his Generation with all faithfulness in the great Work of the Ministry of the Gospel not much valâ—â—ng the opprobation or displeasure of men when the Interest of his great Lord and Master and the present Peace and Everlasting Welfare of men were concerned being indeed very faithful and laborious in that great Work So that we may without vanity say of him as our blessed Saviour when time was said of John the Baptist Joh. 5.35 that he was in his time a burning and a shining light and many did much rejoyce at least for a season in his light although at some times and some turns in the faithful discharge of his Duty he met with the same measure that his great Lord and Master had measured out unto him in the daies of his flesh Joh. 6.60 66. For the Subject it self thou wilt find it as a light to guide thee in a dark place there being many of the great and gracious Counsels of God concerning men largely opened especially of such a nature whereon much of their spiritual Welfare doth depend viz. as to the manner and method of the Spirit of God in his proceedings with men and those Rules and Laws which he hath prescribed unto himself in his advance and decrease in their hearts and souls in order to the carrying them up into the Mount of God We mean into those high strains of the Gospel where the richest and choicest Consolations lie and where men and women may drink abundantly of them and be thereby put into the best capacity to serve God upon the highest terms of acceptation with himself as also may be great blessings and Benefactors to the World round about them according to the design of the Lord Christ in that choice which he makes of men by the Gospel which as the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 2.9 signifieth is the making of them a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood a holy Nation a peculiar People for this very end and purpose namely That they might shew forth the Praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light The design of this Discourse being to carry thee up into the way of life which the Wiseman saith is above to the Wise that he may depart from hell beneath Prov. 15 24. which whilest men who love to dwell with their minds and hearts in these lower Regions are never like to be partakers of For this World and the things thereof were never intended by God as that which should answer the vast desires of men he having prepared better things for them that those noble Endowments of theirs might be conversant with matters of far greater concernment such as will advance and raise their felicity to a near Affinity and likeness with the Angels themselves those first-born Princes of Heaven who by beholding the Face of God continually are thereby filled with unspeakable joy and satisfaction and by means hereof are made blessed indeed Even so God in the Gospel through his abundant grace shines forth the knowledge of himself unto the Children of men that so beholding as in a Glass his Glory they may be
of the Consciences of men unto holiness and unto the observation of the Law And Chap. 16.27 he declares that he will reward every man according to his works And Chap. 23. he pronounceth woe upon woe and heaps of woes against the Scribes and Pharisees for their misdemeanours and transgression of the Law in their Places and Calling Yea after his Resurrection being now ready to leave the World and to ascend up into heaven when he delivered the sum and substance of the Gospel unto the Apostles as that which was to be the subject matter of their Preaching one part of it was Minatory and answering the Curse of the Law yea it containeth a sorer and far more grievous curse than that which the Law denounceth He that believeth not saith he shall be damned Mar. 16.16 This damnation of the Gospel is a thousand times more dreadful than the Curse or damnation of the Law and this in two respects First It is irreversible when once it hath seized upon a person whereas the Curse of the Law when a man hath incurred it may be taken from him by the grace of the Gospel Every man that doth not at present believe is under the Curse of the Law but under the Curse of the Gospel he only is that dieth in his unbelief For when it is said But he that believeth not shall be damned The meaning cannot be that whosoever is not at present an actual believer shall be damned but he that dieth in unbelief Again secondly The Curse of the Gospel is much more grievous than the Curse of the Law in respect of the great weight or degree of misery which accompanieth it when it falls upon the Creature The Curse of the Law where it falls it will break in pieces but the Curse of the Gospel will grind all to powder The Apostle implyeth such a difference as this Heb. 2.3 How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation c. And as the Ministry of the Lord Christ was most purely and exemplarily Evangelical Sect. 12 and therefore far from Legal yet pressed the observation of the Moral Law in all points with the greatest exactness and severity that might be yea and threatned the vengeance of hell fire in case of neglect and disobedience Such was the Ministry of the Apostle Paul also How frequent and fervent is he in all his Epistles in perswading and pressing and urging men unto every good way and work Yea how district and terrible is he in his threatnings of the loss of the Kingdom of Heaven and Salvation it self 1 Cor. 6.9 10. We see there how close he bindeth the duties of the Law Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherite the Kingdom of God Be not deceived c My Brethren what Minister if you call that legal in a Minister did ever urge and press the duties of the Law upon higher terms than this Apostle did If you make but observation you shall find throughout all his Writings this was a frequent vein of his Ministry Gal. 5.19 20 21. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication c. So Ephes 5.3 4 5 6. But Fornication and all Vncleanness c. let it not be so much as once named amongst you know you not that no Whoremonger nor Idolater nor Adulterer nor Unclean person shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven Let no man deceive you with vain words making you believe that you shall come off at last Why For or because of these things cometh the wrath of God i. e. cometh in the Present Tense as if it were ready to fall on them the same hour and moment And again the like place Phil. 3.18 19. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are Enemies of the Cross of Christ c. So that it is evident from these Passages out of this Apostle that his Writings are full of this Spirit namely to press the duties of the Law of God upon the Consciences of men to fill if it were possible their hearts and so their lives with the observation of them The Ministry of the Apostle Peter also was of the same strain with the two former strongly bent to fill the hearts and lives of men with righteousness and true holiness and this by threatning Judgments and Wrath against the Disobedient 1 Pet. 4.17 18. If Judgment begin at the House of God What shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God And if the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Ungodly and Sinner appear It is a very terrible kind of expression and representeth the state of the ungodly and wicked to be such as that no wit of man no nor all the Angels of Heaven were capable of casting up all the horrour or terrour which will befall them And so again 2 Pet. 2.4 5 6. For if God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness c. and made them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly If God had only threatned these namely the Angels and those wicked men the Inhabitants of the Old World c. but had never done execution according to the tenour of his threatnings men might have thought that he had only threatned men to keep them in awe and no more But such examples as these shew that when God doth threaten he doubtless doth it not in vain only to threaten but will do execution according to his threatning in case men continue in their sinful waies So that there is no ground to judge and determine a Ministry to be legal because the bent and face of it is set as it were to press men to the keeping of the Commands of God contained in the Moral Law nor because it threatneth with the greatest severity and with the vengeance of hell fire them that shall neglect any of his Commands it may be excellent and highly Evangelical notwithstanding That which is pretended that it namely the Law should not be pressed upon men because they are not under the Law but under grace Rom. 6.14 8.2 is of no force For the natural conscience in men doth dictate unto them and urge upon them the performance of those very duties which the Law of God doth require and therefore it is not material to insist here upon this question Whether Believers are bound to observe the Moral Law as it was delivered unto the Jews for it is unquestionable that the things contained in this Law are binding upon them otherwise as the Apostle doth distinguish very accurately and carefully in that case Rom. 2.14 15. He doth not say that the Gentiles did subject themselves to Moses Law as it was delivered unto the Jews but they did the things contained in the Law So if Believers be bound to do those duties in every respect which the Law requireth This we may call a
Fulness which Filii Terrae the Children of this World or Earthly-minded men do affect and set their hearts upon viz. To have their Barns full their Purses and Chests full their Bellies full c. Psal 17.14 144.13 Ezek. 16.49 Phil. 3.19 though this be but as I may say to be full of Emptiness or as the Wiseman better expresseth it of Vanity and Vexation of Spirit for that is the best that Earthly things afford so that in the Fulness of their sufficiency they are in straights as it is Emphatically observed in Job 20.22 There are also who may woe unto them be called Filii Diaboli the Children of the Devil who mind a Fulness of a worse sort than that newly named and that is to be full of Sin Acts 5.17 13.10 45. 19.28 Rom. 1.29 Jam. 3.8 2 Pet. 2.14 Rev. 17.3 4. but this alas is to be full of Wrath and Misery for Sin hath no better Attendants and Effects But Filii Dei the Sons of God the Children of the most High do mind are ambitious of and do cover after another and better Fulness viz. To be full of Light Mat. 6.22 Of Grace and Truth Joh. 1.14 with 16. Of Joy Joh. 15.11 Acts 6.3 11 24. Rom. 15.13 1 Joh. 1.4 Of Faith Acts 6.5 8. Of Good-works Acts 9.36 Of Goodness Rom. 15.14 Of Knowledge and Assurance Col. â— 9. 2.2 Heb. 6.11 10.22 Of a full Age or perfect Stature Heb. 5.14 with Eph. 4.13 Of Mercy Jâ—m 3.17 Of Righteousness and its Fruits Phil. 1.11 To be filled with all the Fulness of God Eph. 3.19 And at last to receive a full Reward 2 Joh. v. 8. Beside all this there is one special Fulness more which they greatly desire and no less endeavour after while they are here below in Relation to all the other Fulnesses that they may be filled with them all which is to be full of the Holy Ghost or to be filled with the Spirit Luke 4.1 Acts 9.17 Eph. 5.18 and this is the thing about which the following Treatise is chiefly employed and mostly taken up and of which indeed it treats to very good purpose and to very great advantage I cannot but acknowledge to have profiâ—ed by the perusal of it and do heartily pray that the Lord who teacheth to profit will teach all that â—â—ad it to profit by it and make it instrumental to their being filled with the Spirit wherein there can be no Excess no sin as there is in being filled or drunk with Wine as the Sacred Text and truth assures us but advantages innumerable beyond all that Mirth and Glee which men presume they shall and fanfie they do attain by being filled with Wine Though I confess my self not to be of the same mind and opinion with the Learned Author in some other controverted Points yet I cannot but give my Testimony concerning this Peece That I find an excellent Spirit moving on the face and acting in the heart of it to promote the Glory of God the Power of Godliness and consequently the good of men especially of Christian men Possibly an Expression here and there may as all Humane Writings do call for a grain of Salt as we use to phrase it but as to the tenour of the whole and the tendency thereof I do judge it to be very inoffensive and not a little but very useful The Author 't is true according to his wonted Genius doth often traverse a great deal of ground and fetcheth some compasses before he come to his designed journeys-end yet he makes it pleasant too by such variety and will thereby pay the Reader for his pains and patience in following of him The Epistle of the Publishers and the Contents of the Book will give so clear and full an account of the whole that I shall need to say no more concerning it That this and all good Books may be well read and improved is the hearty Wish and Prayer of him who is a lover of all Christians yea and of all men Ralph Venning The Contents of the Chapters CHAP. I. THe Coherence and sense of the words opened What it is to be filled with the Spirit Four Doctrines raised from the words Proved from the Scriptures that it is the duty of all Christians to be filled with the Spirit Page 1 CHAP. II. The first Reason of the Doctrine propounded and argued viz. That it is the Duty of all Persons especially of all the Professors of the Gospel or Christianity to be filled with the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God Because if men be not filled or in a way of being filled with the Spirit of God they will be filled with some evil Spirit one or other Page 15 CHAP. III. The second Reason of the Doctrine without being filled with the Spirit the hearts of men and women will never serve them to do excellent things for God Acts 5.3 Ch. 13. 9 10. Ch. 20. 22. 2 Cor. 5.13 in part opened Page 41 CHAP. IV. The Doctrine demonstrated by a third ground viz. That we are never like to be any great Benefactors unto the World which yet we stand bound in duty to be unless we be filled with the Spirit He is a great Benefactor unto the World that gives a real account of his believing in Christ Why Abraham called the Father of Believers The force of Example A mans keeping the Commandments of Jesus a great benefit and accommodation unto the World in two respects Gal. 6.2 in part opened 2 Tim. 3.8 in part opened So Eph. 3.14 15 16. The Saints praying for any good thing frequently in their prayer mention the means by which God is wont to give or effect it Page 45 CHAP. V. The fourth Reason of the Doctrine propounded and argued Men are not capable of receiving the rich Consolations of the Gospel unless they be filled with the Spirit 1 Pet. 2.9 in part opened So Heb. 6.17 18. Eph. 3.17 18. 1 Pet. 1.8 Eph. 1.18 Jam. 2.13 Prov. 19.16 Acts 17.28 Mar. 4.5 and 6.16 Page 65 CHAP. VI. The fifth and last Reason of the Doctrine argued Men stand bound in duty to put themselves into a capacity of the fullest and highest rewards which God hath prepared for and holdeth forth unto the Children of men Inequality of rewards in glory argued The Parable of the Peny Mat. 20. considered The advantages of late Converts Inconveniences incident to to the early which yet may be avoided Dan. 12 3. in part opened 1 Cor. 3.8 Eph. 6.8 Gal. 6.7 1 Cor. 15.58 Rom. 6.23 Psal 138.2 Psal 25.8 10. Mat. 13.43 Phil. 3.21 2 Tim. 4.8 Mat. 20.20 21. Rom. 9.15 Mat. 5.48 Num. 25.11 12 13. 2 Thes 1.10 Eph. 1.23 2 Pet. 1.4 1 Joh. 3.3 2 Cor. 7.1 Heb. 11.10 17 18 19 26. Heb. 12.2 Joh. 17.5 Luke 22.43 Page 91 CHAP. VII Three Questions propounded to give further light into the Doctrine The first of them enquired into namely who or what this Spirit mentioned in the Text is
more that hath laboured with God in prayer for him I mean for his repentance or conversion Neither do I conceive it incident to any of your thoughts that the Holy Ghost should act or move by any such rule which should render the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man much less the effectual fervent prayers of many righteous men on the behalf of another of none effect It must needs I conceive grate upon any mans understanding to think so For God hath commanded men to pray one for another And Parents especially are bound to lay up in Prayers for their Children as well as in Lands or money and that which is laid up or if you will laid out by worthy Parents for their Children in Prayers is like to turn to a more certain account in benefit and good unto them than that which is laid up or out for them otherwise And to this purpose Ambrose that saying of Jerome unto Monica Austins Mother who wept and prayed for her Sons Conversion night and day for a long time together whilst he like a lost sheep was going astray in the errour and vain practices of the Manichees this woman I say making her moan to Jerome about this her Son received this answer from him full of comfort Non potest perire filius tot lacrymarum A Child that hath so many tears bestowed on him by a Parent could not perish meaning could not lightly perish As when we express any great hope concerning the obtaining or coming to pass of a thing we often express our selves by such a kind of Hyperbole and say It cannot be otherwise For it is worthy our taking notice of by the way that when we pray for the repentance or the conversion of a child or friend or whoever if we pray regularly and agreeable to the mind and will of God we do neither pray simply or absolutely for his repentance as if in case he should not be brought to repentance then God cannot be said to have heard or granted our Prayers nor yet conditionally neither in such a sense as if we should or in duty ought to leave him at liberty whether he would grant our Prayers in this kind or no for he hath not left himself at liberty in such cases neither would he have us leave him at such a liberty but when we pray for the conversion of a Child Husband Wife or any other person our Prayers ought to be absolute in this kind that he would be pleased to vouchsafe to intreat the person for whom we pray very graciously and effectually by his Spirit in order to the bringing him to repentance that he will move and encline his Will with a high hand of perswasive power that if it be possible he may not any longer remain impenitent This is the tenour or effect of any Prayer that can be made advisedly and regularly according to the will of God for the repentance or conversion of any But if this be the sense of our Prayers that God would compel men to repent or which is the same though there hath been much beating of the air to find or rather to make a difference that he would incline his will by an irresistible power hereunto this is not according to the will of God nor doth he convert any man nor will he upon the Prayers of an Angel in Heaven bring any man to repentance upon such terms as these Nor doth it stand with his wisdom nor with the great end of his glory which he hath on foot and carrieth on from day to day in his Government and Administration of the World Yea and though the repentance of the person for whom we pray for upon such terms should follow yet it is not to be imputed to our Prayers as if they obtained it though haply that good and Christian intention out of which we may pray in such a case may prevail with God for that grace to be given unto him who is prayed for by which he is brought to repentance So then that which I say is this That though a person hath been a long time loose careless and prophane a despiser of God and of his Grace yet if his condition hath been frequently and fervently commended unto God by Prayer and this by persons of any considerable interest in God such as Noah Daniel and Job all their Prayers may possibly meet together in one and center in some more than ordinary excitation of the heart and soul of such a person by the Holy Ghost as in the hearing of a Sermon or some other like opportunity by the advantage whereof he may possibly be brought to repent and believe And in such interposures of the Holy Ghost as these he is not to be conceived to make any digression from the standing and common Rule To him that hath shall be given c. For the person we speak of though all this while wicked and prophane yet may be said to have upon the account of that which hath been put up to God for him the prayers and intercessions the cries and tears that have been presented by any person or persons who have been in favour with God this hath been given unto him and is of the same consideration in Heaven and with God in relation to his case and condition as if he himself had made such an improvement of what he had which is wont to bring men under the blessing of the Promise To him that hath shall be given c. And thus much for answer and satisfaction to that objection concerning the sudden conversion of men formerly ungodly and prophane and for the first reason of the Doctrine If men be not filled or in the way of being filled with the Spirit of God they are in danger of being filled with some other spirit CHAP. III. The second Reason of the Doctrine without being filled with the Spirit the hearts of men and women will never serve them to do excellent things for God Acts 5.3 Ch. 13.9 10. Ch. 20.22 2 Cor. 5.13 in part opened THe second Reason of the Doctrine is this Sect. 1 Every man and woman is bound to be filled with the Spirit of God Because without such a filling the hearts of men and women will never serve them to do any excellent things for God their hands will never bestrong enough to be lift up to the high Commandments of God which yet doubtless is the duty of every Servant of God I mean upon occasion to lift up his hands even to the highest of the Commandments of God Men and women without some competent fulness of the Spirit will ever and anon be apt to stumble and betray the honour of God and the peace and comfort of their own souls For where there is not such a fulness of the Spirit of God there must needs be space left in the hearts and souls of men for foolish apprehensions vain desires and carnal projections to lodge there and these will
a service that seems vain rash or needless in the eyes of most men then the glory of it shall shine round about him and he shall see as in a vision of the noon day this conveniency and that this consequence and that attending upon it all great and excellent and worthy and by this means the heart comes to be full of it full of the greatness and the goodness and the worthiness of it full of the sense of the benefit and blessing which it will bring along with it So that though all the world should rise up against him to disswade him from it they could not do it For in such a case there would be no opportunity no roomth in his heart or soul for any carnal disswading interposure to enter or to intermeddle about taking him off from it As when the glory of the Lord had filled the Temple the Priests could not enter into it to do their Office or any work belonging to them here 2 Chron. 7.2 In like manner when the Holy Ghost hath filled the Temple of the soul with the glory of great and high ingagements for God and for the Gospel such reasonings and conceits which are wont to purvey for the flesh and to sacrifice all that comes to net pleasures and profits unto it cannot now find entrance hither to inveigle or intice the hearts or consciences of men to hearken unto them So that we see the truth of this reason That unless men and women be filled with the Spirit of God they will never be able to advance in such waies and courses and to hold out in many practices and services without which the honour of God the reputation and credit of the Gospel of Christ cannot be maintained like unto themselves in the world The Gospel will suffer loss and lose ground unless it be held up and the present interest of it maintained by some such worthy practices and undertakings of the Saints as those we have now spoken of and which we have shewed will hardly be attempted much less performed and carried through with that height of courage and resolution which will make the face of the Gospel to shine unless they that shall be called to be Actors of them shall be so emptied of themselves as to be filled with the Holy Ghost and by this means be lifted up above themselves CHAP. IV. The Doctrine demonstrated by a third ground viz. That we are never like to be any great Benefactors unto the world which yet we stand bound in duty to be unless we be filled with the Spirit He is a great Benefactor unto the world that gives a real account of his believing in Christ Why Abraham called the Father of Believers The force of Example A mans keeping the Commandments of Jesus a great benefit and accommodation unto the world in two respects Gal. 6.2 in part opened 2 Tim. 3.8 in part opened So Eph. 3.14 15 16. The Saints praying for any good thing frequently in their prayer mention the means by which God is wont to give or effect it THe third Reason of the Doctrine is this Sect. 1 Every man stands bound upon this account to be filled with the Spirit of God Because otherwise a man will never become any great and signal benefactor unto the world He will never bless or serve his Generation at any worthy rate or as becomeâ—h an heir apparent to life and immortality to do There are two things in this Reason the one supposed or taken for granted as clear and evident enough in it self the other plainly affirmed That which is supposed is this That it is every mans duty to become a Benefactor and this in some degree considerable unto the world This is nothing but what every man stands charged with by God I mean to be singularly and signally active for the real and crue interest of the world whilst he continueth and abideth in it That which is plainly laid down and affirmed is That a man without being filled with the Spirit will never be in any rich or competent capacity to perform his duty in this kind Now concerning the former though it be a truth shining clear enough with its own light yet because every mans eyes haply are not sufficiently opened to see it let us make a little eye-salve of the Word of God to anoint them with that they may be opened to see it First then that all men are bound to believe in Jesus Christ at least all men that have the Gospel preached unto them though there be little question indeed of others Secondly That they are bound to do the best they can to make the world believe this concerning them I mean that they do indeed believe on him As will the one as the other of these is I suppose every mans apprehension and no mans question or doubt Now if this be true Full that every man and woman of us stands bound to believe in Jesus Christ And secondly to do that which is proper and sufficient to convince the world that we do thus believe it evidently followeth That every man stands bound to do some great and worthy thing for the World and to be a Blessing to his Generation For there is nothing lies within the sphere of humane activity of more worthy or higher accommodation or concernment unto the World than to present it with a clear Vision of the sight of a man Believing with his whole heart in Jesus Christ or else to shew unto men the sight of the World it self Conquered and Overcome by a man With both these sights every such man or woman presenteth the World who telleth the World with authority and power that is by a manifest contempt of the World in all that it can either do for him or against him that he believeth in Jesus Christ There is not a greater sight to be shewed or seen in the world than to shew it plainly and cause it to see distinctly the heart of a throughout Believer in Christ or to shew it in like manner the World Overcome by a weak and mortal man Now both these sights a man doth shew when he doth cast contempt upon the World Such a man presents the World with both these with a man really believing in Jesus Christ and with a man having the World under his feet Most men when they pretend or go about to let the World know that they believe in Jesus Christ speak like unto the Spirits of Divination the manner of whose speaking the Pophet Isaiah describeth by peeping and muttering Isa 8.19 as if they were afraid to speak out or plainly lest they should be taken tardy with speaking a lye being conscious to themselves of their inability positively to declare the truth concerning the things which are inquired about at their hands by their Proselites and Customes In like manner the generality of Professors amongst us who pretend to give the world to know that they believe in Jesus Christ do but peep and
the hard hearts and consciences of sinful and unbelieving men The words of God in the mouths of such men are as Arrows in the hand of a Giant as David speaketh Psal 127.4 they pierce deep and do execution afar off Other men that for matters appertaining unto God are but like the rest of the World and have nothing singular in their lives and conversations though using and uttering the same words with the former are yet but as sounding Brass or tinkling Cymbals in comparison of them Yea when men shall be found or known to be as it were rent and torn or broken in their obedience unto the Gospel alas they know or may know that when they shall preach the Doctrine of Faith Repentance Mortification or the like men will have wherewith to answer all that shall be spoken unto them by such men from their own mouths For who regards words and sayings where actions and works are of a contrary import As he that speaks Contradictions one while affirming one thing and at another time the quite contrary this man edifies no man by such a kind of discourse no man can tell whether he speaketh truth in the former Proposition or whether in the latter and so they go away as if nothing had been spoken they who speak at no better a rare destroying one saying with the other In like manner they whose lives and actions rise up against their teachings or speakings are of kin to those dumb Dogs of which the Scripture speaks Isa 56.10 For what they teach or affirm in words they deny in works and so in effect teach nothing at all The reason why Christ is said to have taught with authority and not as the Scribes and Pharisees is given by some to be this and I conceive it very pertinent viz. because he did what he said and taught and they said and did not So when they that keep the holy Commandment and walk up to the Rule of the Gospel shall teach admonish and instruct they shall do it with power and authority the Conscience and Judgments of men will give them reverence and do homage unto them As it is said of Herod that he feared John knowing that he was a just man and an holy and observed him and when he heard him he did many things Mar. 6.20 And our Saviour taketh notice else-where of his righteousness and holy life as making his Doctrine much more commendable and of force upon the Consciences of men and withal chargeth such persons very high who did not embrace and submit unto his Doctrine John faith he came unto you in a way of righteousness and yet you believed him not Mat. 21.32 as who should say You declared your selves a Generation of Vipers indeed when as having such a man as John come among you a person so innocent and holy that you could lay nothing to his charge yet you reject his Doctrine you believe him not which is contrary to the light of Reason and argues a preposterous and perverse spirit frowardly bent against the Truth So that if men be not of this Generation men of a viperous spirit and desperately set upon their own ruine and destruction it cannot lightly be but the Gospel coming from the mouthes of just and holy men will do great execution upon them and make the powers of sin and darkness to fly before it Thus we have made good that in the Reason given which was supposed being this That every man standeth bound in duty towards God to act the part of a worthy Benefactor unto the World round about him and as far as in him lieth to bless his Generation The other thing which is affirmed in the Reason Sect. 7 was That no man or woman can be in any good or indeed tolerable capacity to discharge this Obligation unless they be filled with the Spirit of God And this we have in part made good already in what was delivered in opening the former Reason There we shewed That men and women will never do any great any singular thing for God and the interest of the Gospel unless they take a regular and due course to be filled with the Spirit There is the same consideration of doing great things for the World Men and women will fall extremely short of their duty herein also and with-hold that from the World which is its due unless they take an effectual course to strengthen their hand and their heart to the work which must be by filling themselves with the Spirit of God For as they who give munificently and like Princes had need be Princes or at least have the the Estate and Revenues of Princes So such men and women who shall cast in any thing considerable into the Treasury of the World to cover the nakedness and feed the hunger and heal the poverty of it had need be full of the Divine Nature and have a special Magazine within them of Faith and Love of Wisdom and Knowledge of Patience and Humility of Mortification and elf-denial and many other heavenly endowments Otherwise they shall never be able to rejoyce over mankind to do it much good nor to sow liberally and plentifully unto it As the Lord Christ had he not been Rich as the Apostle faith 2 Cor. 8.9 the making of himself Poor would not have extended to the making of many Rich so in case that a person hath but a little inward worth in him if he be scanted in true excellency and nobleness of spirit though he should empty and pour out himself to the World the poverty of it is such and the necessity of it so extreme craving and so devouring above measure that such an estate would do little more towards the relief of it than the seven fat Kine in Pharaohs dream did toward the seven that were lean and ill favoured the Text faith when they had devoured them they were not seen upon them but they were as lean and starven and as evil favoured as before the fat had need it seems to have been seven and seven and twenty times seven times fatter than they were to have wrought a Cure upon the leanness and hard-favouredness of the other And as Andrew Simon Peters Brother informed Christ of a Lad that had five barly loaves and two small fishes but viewing the multitude that were to be fed demanded but what are they amongst so many Joh. 6.9 And the truth is without the miraculous interposure of a Divine Power for their multiplication they had been very little indeed amongst the multitude that was to be relieved by them In like manner he that shall diligently consider and compute not so much the numberless multitude of souls or of men and women in the World round about him as the numberless multitude of their spiritual necessities and those very sad and threatning with open mouth eternal ruine and destruction on every side cannot lightly but confess upon the view that he that shall minister unto them with any likelihood
stand bound in duty to put themselves into a capacity of the fullest and highest rewards which God hath prepared for and holdeth forth unto the Children of men Inequality of rewards in glory argued The Parable of the Penny Mat. 20. considered The advantages of late Converts Inconveniences incident to the early which yet may be avoided Dan. 12.3 in part opened 1 Cor. 3.8 Eph-6 8 Gal. 6.7 1 Cor. 15.58 Rom. 6.23 Psa 138.2 Psa 25.8 10. Mat. 13.43 Phil. 3.21 2 Tim. 4.8 Mat. 20.20 21. Rom. 9.15 Mat. 5.48 Num. 25.11 12 13. 2 Thes 1.10 Eph. 1.23 2 Pet. 1.4 1 Joh. 3.3 2 Cor. 7.1 Heb. 11.10 17 18 19 26. Heb. 12.2 Joh. 17.5 Luke 22.43 THe fifth and last Reason Sect. 1 Every man is therefore bound to be filled with the Spirit of God that so he may be capable of the fullest and highest rewards that God holdeth forth to the Sons and Daughters of men to provoke them to waies and works of greatest excellency and worth In this Reason there are two things supposed and one affirmed the two particulars supposed are these First That the rewards which God holds out to invite and incourage men unto holiness and worthiness of Conversation are different in their respective values and degrees Or if you please thus As some may do well and others do better as the Apostle supposeth 1 Cor. 7.38 so may some men be well rewarded by God for well-doing and yet others be more graciously or more bountifully rewarded by him for doing better The other thing supposed is this That every man stands bound in duty towards God to render himself capable of the richest and greatest reward which God judgeth meet to confer upon any man The thing affirmed in the Reason is this That without being filled with the Spirit men will never be found in a capacity of being thus rewarded I mean with the highest and richest rewards which God hath in store for men Let us with all the brevity that may be shew you all these from the Scriptures For the first That God intends the Collation of greater rewards upon those who shall abound in the work of the Lord more than others is clearly laid down in the Scriptures from place to place But this I say saith the Apostle to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 9.6 He which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully Whether we understand this place of temporal or spiritual rewards or both of reaping in this life or in that which is to come it is of the same import thus far It plainly proves an intent and purpose in God to reward those more liberally than other men who shall quit themselves in well-doing accordingly As he rewarded Phineas the Son of Eleazer for that zealous act of his in executing judgment upon Zimri and Cozby by which he turned away his wrath from the Children of Israel Num. 25.10 11 12. above the rate of other godly persons in the same Generation with him And if God put a difference between the different walkings and services of men in matters of reward relating to this present life Why should we not conceive that he doth the like if not much more in the life and world to come at least in respect of such persons whose signal Faithfulness unto him hath not been signally recompensed before death Which is the case generally of those who are faithful unto death for righteousness sake or for the profession of the truth The Saints of old Heb. 11.35 are said not to have accepted deliverance when they were tortured meaning when it was offered them upon unworthy terms or else not to have accepted it that is not much to have desired or minded it that they might obtain and receive the better Resurrection that is the better state and condition in the Resurrection that they might rise again with so much the more glory There is one glory saith the Apostle of the Sun and another glory of the Moon and another glory of the Stars For one star differeth from another star in glory So also is the resurrection of the dead c. 1 Cor. 15.41 meaning that there will be a proportionable inequality in the glory and blessedness of the Saints in the Resurrection This exuberance or redundance of reward that we speak of is clearly held forth in the Parable of the Talents delivered out by the Master unto several Servants Mat. 25. And there is this reason why it should be so as we have now presented the case unto you why God should reward some above the line of others supposing that which we all know to be true an inequality among the Saints in zeal and service and faithfulness unto God viz. because though the Collation or bestowing of eternal life upon the Saints be in one respect an act of free grace and bounty in God in which respect it is said to be the gift of God and that which is conferred in this kind upon them is sometimes termed a reward which may be the same where services have been different if the Donor pleaseth yet in another respect this Act of God we speak of is an Act of justice of distributive or remunerative justice and so most frequently represented in the Scriptures and consequently must of necessity proceed and be carried according to all the variety and diversity of worth and excellency that shall be found in the waies and works and services of all those that shall be rewarded How and in what respect that Act of God we speak of is an Act of Free Grace or Bounty and in what respect again an Act of Justice we shall not now stand to declare because we desire to hasten upon which account also we shall at present forbear the answering of such objections or difficulties which seem to lye against and to incumber the Doctrine of inequality of rewards in glory Sect. 2 Only we shall desire your patience to speak a word or two for the clearing of the said Doctrine from having any thing in it contrary to the scope of our Saviour in that Parable Mat. 20. where those that were hired at several hours of the day to labour in the Vineyard some early in the morning some at the third hour some at the sixth some at the ninth and some at the eleventh are said notwithstanding to receive every man a Penny This Parable is so interpreted and understood by some as if it held forth such a Doctrine as this and implied that all true Believers and all true Servants of God shall be equally rewarded by God and as if this was the principle drift of it For answer hereunto First I confess and Interpreters generally acknowledge the same with me that the Parable is of a very difficult interpretation and that it is hard to draw all the parts and passages of it to a clear comportance or Coherence with that which is expressed to be the drift intent and scope of it But
the face of the Lord Christ himself in his transfiguration on the Mount did shine as the Sun Mat. 17.2 Yet I think it is no mans Faith that either the faces or the bodies of the Saints shall shine with equal glory unto his For how should he then in all things have the preheminence which yet the Apostle affirms concerning him Col. 1.18 Therefore when it is also said That he shall change the vile body of the Saints that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body the word like doth not import the quantity or degree but only the quality or nature of the glory of the body of Christ unto which their vile body shall be conformed as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth For otherwise the import would be that the bodies of all the Saints should be equal in glory unto the body of Christ himself which is a thing so little worthy belief that as was even now hinted Christians generally are either ashamed or affraid to affirm it So that the meaning of the passage must needs be this or to this effect That Christ by the Almightiness of his power will so alter the property and condition of the bodies of the Saints which now in the state of mortality are vile that is of an abasing and humbling complexion and frame as to invest them with an heavenly splendour and brightness of the same kind with that wherewith his own body is made most transcendently glorious not but that he should be known amongst them by the surpassing glory of his body above theirs as readily as the Sun may be known from the rest of the Stars whose light nevertheless is of the same kind with the light of the Sun and derived from it Nor yet as if all the Saints who shall all partake of this glory should partake hereof in the same measure or degree As though all the Stars in the firmament of Heaven which to us are without number shine with one and the same kind of light namely that which is originally vested in the Sun and is by and from him communicated unto them yet are they not equal among themselves in the participation of this light the Apostle himself attesting the judgment of our sense in this that one star differeth from another in glory 1 Cor. 15.41 meaning not in respect of the nature or kind but in the quantity measure or degree of that light which makes them all glorious And if that notion of some Philosophers as well as of some learned Christians be true which many thoughts bestowed upon the Contemplation have made little questionable unto me that God hath stamp'd the matters of the visible and invisible World with the same seal and made the things that are seen in a rational correspondency with the things that are not seen that so by the one men might the more easily ascend to the knowledge and belief of the other I cannot but judge it a probability of the first magnitude that God as the Author of Nature hath created such Creatures as the Sun on the one hand and the rest of the Stars respectively on the other and so contrived dependencies respects and relations between and amongst them not only if so much to serve the World in those inferiour accommodations of light influence distinction of seasons c. for in reason he might have as well provided for these and all such ends and purposes by some other contrivance and ordering of them at least in some particulars but that they might be a natural type or representation wherein he purposeth to appear in glorifying his Son Jesus Christ on the one hand and his Saints respectively on the other For he purposeth to confer and settle upon Christ such an heaped measure of glory by which he shall be known to be the only begotten of the Father Joh. 1.14 and be eminently conspicuous amongst and over all his Saints and from which all these according to their different capacities shall be furnished and filled with glory even as all the stars according to their several magnitudes and receptivities have their fill of light communicated unto them by and from the Sun whose superabounding light by degrees without number surmounteth theirs So when the Apostle Paul promiseth or declareth that Crowns of righteousness shall be given to all the Saints by Christ for these he meaneth by those that love his appearance as well as unto himself although there will be found very few or none of them equal in service unto him his meaning only is that they shall be advanced to royal honour and dignity and wear Crowns as well as he But amongst Kings themselves there is we know a great difference in respect of riches extent of Dominion number of Subjects strength for war and consequently in Magnificence Grandeur Majesty Yea all Crowns are not of equal weight or value Nor doth the Apostle in the place in hand give the least intimation of an equality in worth or richness in all the Crowns that shall be given by Christ unto his Saints in glory The current of the Scripture as was lately shewed unto you runs another way And thus we have at last we trust made good the first of the two supposals in the reason last propounded Which was that there is a variety of rewards greater and lesser intended by God to be counferred upon his Saints according as his grace shall be found to have wrought in them more or less effectually in this present World The second thing supposed in the Reason was that every man every person of mankind stands bound in duty towards God yea Sect. 13 and towards himself also to put himself by the grace vouchsafed unto him into a capacity of the greatest rewards to seek and labour for the richest investiture of glory that such a Creature as he is capable of There is a sense indeed wherein the seeking of such a thing is so far from being matter of duty that it is nothing else but sin and vanity to do it And this is such a seeking as that which we read of in the Mother of Zebedees children Mat. 20.20 21. and so in the Children themselves Mar. 10.35 Now the Mother sought for the highest preferments in Heaven signified by sitting on the right and left hand of Christ in his Kingdom she sought I say for this in the behalf of her Sons in the nature of a gratuity hoping that seeking in time and before the said places were disposed of she might be gratified in her request as if the first desires were likest to speed And so the Sons themselves sought it after the like manner or upon the same terms if the honours or high places in Christs Kingdom were to be obtained by meer petitioning or asking for them The meaning therefore of the supposition is That it is every mans duty not simply to ask or only to desire the most excellent things of the World to come but to put themselves into
to love God in the highest or else love themselves to such an height as to be willing to purchase their freedom from all penal fears in a way of the greatest honour that can be imagined I mean by giving their hearts whole and entire in Love unto God That which we look at in the passage as serving our purpose is that the Saints are therein encouraged and provoked to perfection in Love which being interpreted as was lately hinted is to all perfection Now certainly it is the duty of every Creature to drink in all encouragements from God as Fishes drink water naturally constantly and with delight and to lift up their hearts and hands unto whatsoever by them they are invited and quickened And he that encourageth or inviteth unto perfection doth by the same act invite also and encourage unto the seeking after the greatest and best things that Heaven will afford We might pursue the Point in hand yet further by insisting on several other veins of Scriptures in which the truth thereof beats quick and high and more especially on that large passage Ephes 4. from ver 11. to the end of v. 15. together with Col. 1.28 In the former of which places the Apostle affirmeth that the great end projected by the Lord Christ in his magnificent bounty unto the World at his Ascension into heaven when he gave gifts unto men some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers was the perfecting of his Saints the building up the body of Christ in all and every the members of it unto a perfect man In the latter the same Apostle professeth his comportment with the said great end of his great Lord and Master in these words speaking of him Whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus But enough I suppose hath been already alledged and argued from the Scriptures to settle this in the judgments and consciences of men for truth that there is no person of mankind at least not amongst the Saints but standeth bound in duty to lay himself out with all his might for the obtaining of the highest Prize in glory If you shall now ask me a reason of this assertion because it may seem somewhat strange unto you that it should be matter of duty unto men and women to desire and seek after the greatest excellency in glory Sect. 15 however it may be their duty to excel in all righteousness and to strive after perfection in this life c. for these two seem to be of a much differing consideration I shall endeavour to satisfie you with presenting you with two or three Considerations which if you please you may call so many Reasons of the Point First It is the duty of every person amongst the Children of men and much more amongst those that believe to consult and endeavour the clearest and fullest manifestations of how high an esteem and value the services of his poor Creature man are with God when they are performed upon the best terms that he enables them to perform them This is a Consideration unto the truth whereof every man's judgment and conscience I may well presume will readily subscribe For there is nothing in God but what being discovered and made known maketh for his glory And the fuller and more convincing any discovery of his things is his glory proportionably is so much the more advanced Now it cannot appear at least not so manifestly or with that demonstrative evidence by any lower investitures of men with glory at how wonderful a rate he prizeth righteousness and faithfulness found in their exaltation in men But they who shall strengthen the hand of God by their high actings in waies and works of righteousness and true holiness to bring forth the best Robe of glory to put upon them these are the men that will do their God that most worthy and acceptable service to give him an opportunity of declaring upon the most unquestionable terms of satisfaction unto the World of how sacred a repute and esteem with him so poor and vile a Creature as man is may come to be if he quitteth and behaveth himself only for the few daies of his earthly Pilgrimage accordingly God delighteth in those Creatures most that will draw him forth in his goodness and bounty most freely and fully as appears by his extraordinary rejoycing over Phinehas for the performance of such an act which gave him a regular opportunity to shew the riches of his grace and mercy in sparing the lives of his people which otherwise his just severity against their sins would not as it seems have permitted him to do See and diligently consider Numb 25.11 12 13. And certainly it is the duty of every Creature and much more of the Saints to seek to give the choicest pleasures they are able to the soul of their Great Creator and consequently to set their hearts upon drawing out of his hand the largest portion of that glory and blessedness wherewith he hath judged meet to reward the services of men Secondly It is said 2 Thes 1.10 that Christ in the end of the World shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe This is to be understood in respect of that glorious and blessed estate and condition whereunto it will then appear that such a vast multitude of poor and despicable Creatures as his Saints sometimes were are now by his Grace and work of Mediation advanced In this respect the body of Christ consisting of the whole number of his Saints and Believers is said to be his Fulness Eph. 1.23 which is his body the fulness of him that filleth all in all Namely because he will never be seen in the fulness of his glory or rather because he cannot be duly estimated in his heavenly worth and greatness but by the glorious happiness unto which so many Millions of Creatures lately poor vile and sinful have been orderly aad honourably advanced by him Now certain it is that if Christ shall be glorified over and besides his own personal glory in and by the glory of his Saints and be admired in the blessedness wherewith all that believe shall be invested by him the greater the glory and felicity of any of them shall be he must needs be the more glorified and admired in them And if it be the duty of all the Saints not only or simply to desire and seek after those things whereby Christ may be made glorious and wonderful but rather after those whereby he may be lift up in glory and admirableness to the highest evident it is from the Premises that it must be their Duty also to press with all their might after the greatest Excellency in that glory which is intended and held forth by God unto men Thirdly Unless men shall stir up their hearts and strengthen their hands by a desire and expectation of the
greatest rewards assigned by God unto righteousness and Christian worth in any kind their hearts will never serve them to fly that high pitch of righteousness and true holiness which without controversie they stand engaged in duty to do nor yet to suffer those things from the World which their Christian Profession may very possibly require at their hands This I might clearly shew you by the light of Nature and grounds of Reason but I shall content my self to demonstrate it by the clearer light of the Scriptures only First It is evident from many passages here Sect. 16 that men are not wont to undertake any thing of difficulty trouble or charge at least if they so apprehend it but upon hope of reaping some advantage or benefit in one kind or other by it Who planteth a Vineyard saith the Apostle and eateth not of the fruit thereof Meaning that no man would be at the cost and trouble of planting a Vineyard did he not desire and hope to eat of the fruit thereof that is to accommodate himself in one kind or other by it So again Who feedeth a Flock and eateth not of the Milk of the Flock 1 Cor. 9 7. Soon after For our sakes no doubt this is written that he that ploweth should plow in hope and that he that thresheth in hope he supposeth that no man thresheth upon any other terms should be partaker of his hope Afterwards towards the end of the same Chapter And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things Now they do it for a corruptible Crown c. meaning out of a desire and hope to obtain such a Crown It is repugnant to the very nature and frame of a rational being to be drawn forth into action in one kind or other but by a desire and hope of compassing some end But of this there is little question Secondly Mens ingagements and actings are never like to rise higher than the level of that good which is desired and hoped to be obtained by them I mean if they understand the just value and worth of it Men will not as our common Proverb is buy Gold too dear If they put themselves to any hardship to knowingly expose themselves to any danger they must be inspired hereunto both by a desire and hope of some purchase proportionably considerable in their eye They that strove for Masteries would not have been so districtly and austerely abstemious as the Apostle intimates as we lately heard they were had it not been for a Crown which however corruptible as he there speaketh was notwithstanding in their apprehensions highly valuable David indeed endeavouring to render himself as a person inconsiderable unto Saul expressed himself to him thus For the King of Israel is come out to seek a Flea as when one hunteth a Partridge in the mountains 1 Sam. 26.20 But if Saul had not looked upon the suppressing of David as a matter of a thousand times greater consequence unto him than the catching of many Fleas or the taking of many Partridges he would not have put himself to the trouble and charge of coming out with an Army of men to pursue him And if the life of Sampson had not been judged a great Prize by the Philistines of Azzah they would not have lost their sleep and watched all night to have made themselves Masters of it Yea God himself knowing that men would never take the Yoke of his Son Jesus Christ upon them nor submit unto the holy Discipline of the Gospel in the exercises of Repentance Mortification Self-denial c. nor expose themselves to the bloudy hatred and malice of the World for righteousness sake unless their spirits were raised and heightned to such great engagements as these by hopes of very signal and glorious recompenses and rewards he applieth himself unto and treateth with them accordingly giving them assured hopes of life and immortality and blessedness for evermore upon their obedience He doubtless considered that lesser or lighter encouragements or retributions than these though in Conjunction with the most prevailing Arguments and Motives otherwise as Ingenuity Goodness of Nature Love of Righteousness Love of God c. yet would not do that holy and happy execution upon the hearts and spirits of men which must be done to make them Proselytes unto true godliness and persons after his own heart to fulfil all his pleasure This the Holy Ghost himself plainly teacheth in several places By which saith Peter that is by which glory and power of God or according to some Copies which read not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom viz. Christ are given unto us most great for so the Original and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust 2 Pet. 1.4 Clearly implying that God had no other way agreeable to his Wisdom and meet to be taken with such a Creature as man to reduce men from their sensual vain and wicked dispositions and practices wherein they were deeply habituated and engaged with the rest of the World unto a conformity to himself in holiness but only by promises and these no whit less for the matter and good things contained in them nor less precious in respect of the abundant assurance given for the performance of them than those that he hath now given unto them in the Gospel The express tenour of the words if they be diligently minded give out this Notion Men would never have been wooed from Sin and Vanity to espouse Righteousness and true Holiness by any other means motives or perswasions whatsoever without being invested with an hope and this pregnant and lively of as great things as the Gospel promiseth to be possessed and enjoyed in due time Of the same import is this also of the Apostle John And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 The Particle and Pronoun this is emphatical intimating that it is the Prerogative or signal priviledge of that hope which he had immediately before mentioned ver 2. to set men on work to purifie themselves according to that great Exemplar of all purity and holiness Jesus Christ and that none other hope but this either formally or materially nor any nor all other means without it are able to engage the Sons or Daughters of men about so heroick and heavenly a work Now this hope of which he speaks this glorious thing that it puts every man that hath it upon purifying himself by the best pattern and as near unto it as he is able humane infirmity considered he signifies to be an hope of being like or of being made like unto Christ himself in respect of his glorified and blessed estate which by a near-hand interpretation amounteth to as much as is contained in all those great and precious Promises of the Gospel lately spoken of I shall upon this
into the Kingdom of Glory may be obtained in the lower waies of Godliness and men in their desires design no more nothing higher than these certain it is from the unquestionable ground on which we now argue that men will not provoke or strain themselves to walk in the upper or higher waies of Godliness for the obtaining of them at least if they be satisfied in their Judgments and Consciences that the lower waies we speak of will carry them up to them And now upon the Premises let us gather up to our intended Conclusion If it be the duty of all the Saints and Servants of God to lift up their hearts and hands to the highest and holiest and greatest of the Commandments of God and every one to strive to go before other in adorning their Profession and magnifying the Lord Jesus in the World which I presume is no man's doubt or question then must it needs be their duty also to ascend up in their desires unto those Mansions in Heaven in which they shall be as near Neighbours unto Christ himself as may be and not content themselves with seeking meerly to be saved and to escape hell fire The Reason of this Consequence is evident from the Premises viz. because 1. Men will not rise higher in their endeavours or in the use of means for obtaining the ends projected and desired by them than they judge necessary for their attainment 2. Because it cannot lightly but be known and concluded by the Saints that they must quit themselves at another manner of rate in all Christian Worth and Godliness to be made capable of sitting at the right hand and left of Christ in his Kingdom or in any of the places near adjoyning than is necessary to give them a bare entrance into this Kingdom Desires and hopes of the lesser and lower enjoyments in Heaven will not wind up their hearts to that height of zeal and resolution for the glory of God and Jesus Christ which the greater things there would do were they ardently desired and accordingly hoped for and expected It is somewhat more than probable unto me that the neglect of that duty the face whereof we have now endeavoured to unveil I mean the duty of desiring and designing not the bare but the heaped up measure of Salvation hath occasioned and bred that dwarfe generation of Professing Christians which I cannot suddenly resolve whether I should rather call the shame or the honour of the Churches of Christ in the World Fifthly and lastly For I shall propose only one consideration more and this very briefly for the clearing up of that truth which we are now pleading The desire not simply of good but of that which is the best for us and so apprehended by us is planted by God himself in the frame of the nature of man This Assertion I conceive needs no proof being if not one of those common Notions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the knowledge or belief of which men are prompted by nature without discourse yet very near of kin unto sundry of them However this Reason in a word evinceth it If there were in men only a desire of that which is simply and positively good and not of that which is superlatively good or best of all than whensoever that which is only positively good or good in a lower degree and that which is excellently good are set together before them though they should apprehend the difference between them yet should they be necessitated in their choice or desires to that which is evil for so a lesser good is in respect of a greater and not at liberty to chuse or desire that which is really and absolutely good for them Therefore doubtless there is in every man by nature from the God thereof an inclination or desire unto that which they apprehend to be best for them all circumstances considered and weighed together I remember a Saying of one of the Fathers somewhat to this purpose Etiam perditâ felicitate voluntatem felicitatis non perdidimus Though we have lost our happiness yet have we not lost our will or desire of being happy Now all desires or inclinations which are in men from God ought to be cherished strengthened and improved by them Nor are they at liberty to neglect or suffer them to languish or to lose any thing of their native force or vigour within them For they are implanted in them by God to lead them into such waies and unto such actions whereby himself as the Author and Donor of them may be glorified and themselves following their conduct be made meet to be rewarded by him So then the Saints as they are men being invested by God not with desires of things that are simply good but of the things that are of greatest and best concernment unto them when they may be had stand bound in duty to nourish and maintain these desires and not to despise or turn aside from them From whence it clearly follows That it is not a matter of indifferency or what they may do or not do as they please but a matter of duty and of obedience unto God to awaken and stir up desires in them after the greatest enjoyments in Heaven knowing in themselves that these may be obtained by waies and means both honourable and such which are or may be by seeking unto God accordingly within their power to use But two things may be here said 1. Sect. 19 The Saints may be ignorant whether they be under any possibility of obtaining those greater things in Heaven you speak of what means soever they shall use in order thereunto How then should they desire them It being a true Notion as well in Divinity as Philosophy that voluntas non vult impossibile The will never willeth that with a settled or deliberate act of willing the attainment whereof a man judgeth to be impossible unto him To this I answer That if any of the Saints be ignorant of such a thing it is their sin and such their ignorance is not justifiable and therefore it cannot excuse them under the omission of that which otherwise is their duty to do although the difficulty of overcoming it being in some degree considerable may qualifie in part the guilt of it and so likewise of that other sin which it occasioneth For though I judge it too hard to call it an affected ignorance in any of the Saints Yet I fear that in many of them it may without any breach of charity be termed a voluntary or willing ignorance because it may by a diligent search into and pondering and comparing of the Scriptures be clearly found God being no respecter of persons and standing declared that he will judge and reward every man according to his works that any person of mankind that will advance and lay out himself in waies and works of righteousness and true holiness accordingly may receive from him a Crown of the greatest weight of glory Secondly It may be said
truly and properly be said to be the disposer and dispenser of the whole and every part and parcel of it And as he is said to have spoken by the Prophets so much more may he be said now to have spoken by his Apostles For whatsoever was spoken by the Apostles was upon the account of Christ the Spirit by which they spake was purchased by Jesus Christ so that the whole and entire Systeme and body of Principles in the New Testament may all be ascribed to Jesus Christ as if he spake all and every part thereof with his own mouth Fourthly and lastly Evident is is from the opposition and comparison which the Apostle here makes between him that spake on Earth in the sense mentioned and him that speaketh from Heaven Sect. 5 and so from the greater obnoxiousness unto Wrath and Punishment in him that shall neglect and disobey the latter above that which we found in him that disobeyed the former who notwithstanding was severely punished by God Evident I say it is from these Comparisons that Evangelical Disobedience i. e. the known and customary neglect of any Precept in the Gospel is of a far more provoking nature and import and far more punishable than the Disobedience of the former Law Justice did not then require any such severe execution upon Transgressors as now it doth Upon this account God respecting the times of the Gospel threatneth Mal. 3.5 that he would be a swift Witness where it is evident that the Prophet speaks of the daies of Christ Who saith he ver 2 may abide the day of his coming And ver 3. He shall sit as a Refiner and Purifier of Silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levie Ver. 4. Then shall the Offerings of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord. Implying that Christ in the daies of the Gospel will call men unto and put them upon another manner of strain of holiness and righteousness and heavenly mindedness than ever they had been put upon before Behold saith he I will come near unto you in Judgment and I will be a swift Witness against the Sorcerers c. and fear ye not me saith the Lord of Hosts He would draw nigh unto them in Judgment then whereas he was at a great distance from them in that respect under the Law Forty years long saith he was I grieved with this Generation But God will not now be grieved long with any stubborn Generation of Delinquents under the Gospel though it may be he do not appear as a swift Judge in respect of Temporal Judgments yet he will some way or other be a swift Witness against them he will declare and make manifest from Heaven after a competent time and reasonable space given them to repent that he doth dislike and that he is highly displeased with their sins and wickedness and disobedience It is upon this account that John the Baptist tells the Jews Christ being come into the World to settle a new Covenant better than the former That the Axe was laid to the Root of the Tree Mat. 3.10 meaning that whereas before God laid the Axe to the Boughs of the Tree but still left the Root standing and so they did recover in time again from under many severe Judgments But Jesus Christ being now come amongst you he being sent unto the World now look to your selves if you do not every man turn from his Iniquity every man from his Abomination you will be cut down and destroyed and burnt with sire For his Fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floure c. By what hath been said we see that to despise an Evangelical Precept or Command of God hath more of provocation of guilt and demerit in it than former Transgressions and Provocations under the Law had The Reason hereof is plain viz. because though some of the Evangelical Commands be more spiritual and so more contrary unto and more grating upon the flesh and in this respect more difficult to be observed than the Precepts under the Law were yet notwithstanding all things considered the rich and glorious advantages which the Gospel affords unto men above what the Law doth to help them to obey These things considered and laid in the Balance it will appear that a despising and neglecting of God and the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel is a sin of a far greater and deeper demerit than the neglect of a Command under the Law for the more easie that obedience is which is prescribed it is of so much the greater provocation and demerit when men shall neglect to obey God having in the Gospel afforded such mighty Arguments and encouragements on the one hand to holiness and vertue and threatned destruction with eternal fire on the other hand to them that shall be disobedient For men to be disobedient under such circumstances as these is most provoking in the eyes of God So that evident it is that such persons who have greater Motives greater means to perswade them to any service if they shall neglect and be despisers of these Commands their demerit is so much the greater and their condemnation will be so much the sorer upon them But now this Command or Exhortation to be filled with the Spirit is not only Evangelical but it hath a special and peculiar property in this kind wherein it agreeth with few others because the giving of the Spirit of God viz. in such a degree as to be filled with it is appropriate to the New Testament It is usual in the Scriptures when things are more fully done and after a more rich and bountiful manner discovered to represent them as newly done though the Spirit of God was given under the Law yet the proportion and quantity of it was but scanty in comparison of what is now given under the Gospel Jesus Christ is now glorified and therefore he poureth out of his Spirit upon the Sons and Daughters of men more abundantly So that to be filled with the Spirit is a duty of such a nature that it is not only Evangelical but likewise more purely Evangelical than many other duties are This should be a great Argument which should bear upon our Spirits to perswade us to submit our selves unto the obedience thereof to gird up the loins of our minds and to go about this great duty with all readiness CHAP. XVII Four Considerations more to enforce the Exhortation The fourth Motive the great benefit accruing unto men and women by a serious engagement in a course likely to issue in a being filled with the Spirit It will free men and women from foolish unclean and noysome lusts somewhat peculiar in this engagement differing from others though worthy in their kind A fifth Motive proving that in case men do what God hath and doth enable them to do in order to a being filled with the Spirit of God this their enterprize shall assuredly prosper in their hand Hope of obtaining great encouragement unto