I am of Christ Thus they expounded it thinking it not matter of reproof for any to say they were of Christ and they say Pauls arguments would hold for this as much as they did against glorying in men For though Paul was not crucified for them yet Christ was Though they were not baptized into Pauls name yet they were into Christs But to answer this It 's true absolutely and simply it 's not a sinne but a duty for every believer to say he is of Christ To call no man Master but Christ therefore he is called a Christian because a worshipper of Christ And the Apostle 1 Cor. 3.22 useth this Argument The believers were not Pauls or Apolloes but on the contrary Whether Paul or Apollo c. all are yours but then mark he doth not say Christ is yours but you are Christs So for believers to say They are Christs is in the general a duty but that which the Apostle here reproveth is such a setting up of Christ as doth oppose the Instruments that Christ also hath appointed and that the Apostle blameth those who said They were Christs it's plain by the Context It 's told me by the house of Chloe That there are divisions and contentions This was a fault complained of And then he instanceth in the matter of the contentions I am of Paul I am of Apollo I am of Christ This is in the same manner reckoned as the former whereas if the Interpretation of the Ancients were true the expression must have been adversative But I am of Christ And then the Argument following is plain Is Christ divided viz. Is the Doctrine or Person of Christ divided Hath Peter one Christ Apollo another or these immediate pretenders another Christ Now these that set up Christ thus in a sinfull way may be either those that pretended immediate teachings by Christ for such were in the Apostles dayes therefore he bids them Try the Spirits or such who happily might have heard Christ himself teaching in his own person and so did wrest those Doctrines that Christ taught and yet in their sense made Christ the teacher of them both may be included Although I must adde That a further thing also is to be comprehended in this factious exalting of Christ vâ—z not only thereby to exclude Instruments but also to conclude that they only had Christ amongst them For this is the property of many Sects to appropriate Christ to themselves as if none had Christ but they Thus the Donatists did monopolize the word Christians to themselves Observe That although Christ onely is to be relied upon as the Head of his Church yet it is not his will that under this pretence wee should despise or contemne his Ministry and the means of grace he hath appointed So that this Text with the former doth excellently bound the spirit of believers that though they delight and rejoyce in the gifts and office of the Ministry reaping much spiritual benefit by it yet they are still to look up to Christ in the Ministry as the author of all increase And on the other side Though the Ministry can do no good without Christs teaching and it 's the Spirit that giveth grace not the Ministers yet we must not so immediately depend on Christ and his Spirit as to neglect the instruments and means he hath appointed Our Saviour cleareth this when in one place He sends his Disciples to preach commanding all to hear them And yet again Bids us call no man master upon earth Here is no contradiction but if a Christian be wise he may excellently compose them No man is to be called Master principally and authoritatively yet Christ hath appointed Teachers and Doctors by whom we are to believe So that it 's the errour and foolishnesse of men when they runne into extreams even as in the Doctrine of Grace and Free-will The Marcionites and Manicâ—ees they denied the Natural Liberty of a man and the Pelagians on the contrary the efficacious grace of God To understand this Consider That there are principal and efficient causes of grace and salvation and there are subordinate and instrumental and these must not be confounded A sound mind must not make instrumentals principals as ignorant people doe thinking the very Sacrament will save them Nor yet must we exalt the principal to exclude the instrumental as Enthusihsts do The Efficient Cause of all grace is attributed onely to God or the three Persons the Father Sonne and holy Ghost in their appropriated way So that it 's true Every good and perfect gift comes from God the Father of lights Jam. 1. No man can come to Christ unlesse the Father draw him John 6.44 And Christ saith He will draw all men to him John 12.32 He is the chief shepherd of our souls He is the truth way and life John 14.6 The Spirit of God also that leadeth into all truth that sanctifieth that inlightneth the mind So that when we have to do with a people that do rest upon outward meanes As some thinke the Ministers gifts the Ministers parts or the very coming of a Minister to them and praying for them while sick is enough to send them to Heaven To such hearers we are much to preach of the efficient principal cause of grace We are to cry Sursum corda we are to say as the Angel to the women looking for Christ in the Sepulchre He is risen Look up to Heaven so to such who rest upon external meanes and Instruments Why look ye downwards look upwards We see among the people of Israel yea and Christians in the New Testament too so great a pronenesse to relie on Instruments but as in civil things we must not relie on an arme of flesh so neither in Church matters on a tongue or mouth of flesh as the Ministers are In the next place There are Subordinate and Instrumental means of Grace which God though he could doe all spiritual things immediately for us and in us yet he hath obliged us to the use of them So that it is an high contempt of God and such may never expect the workings of his Spirit or virtue from Christ that doth not use those instituted meanes he hath appointed Now there is a three-fold Instrumental cause of Grace When we call them a Cause we mean not a natural Cause producing Grace by any inherent power as fire doth burn no but onely instituted Causes God in the faithfull use of these will worke Grace in us And they are three especially First There is the Scripture the Word of God This as it is written and consigned into a Canon is a Rule by which all must believe worship and live Insomuch that if a man pretend any Revelations or teachings which are not warrantable by this written Word he is to be held as accursed To the Law and to the Testimony Isai 8.20 Christ himself still directeth to the Scripture Paul directs Timothy to the Scriptures and
He that would come to God must believe that he is and a rewarder of those that seek him So that this foundation must be laid as well as about Christ And it 's made eternal life to know God the Father the only true God as well as Christ John 17.12 Where the object of our faith that is fundamental is divided into that of God and of Christ the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus also the Doctrine of the Trinity That there are three and these one God is a foundation because we are baptized into the Name of these three and the knowledge of them must needs be fundamental To answer this When we say Christ is to be laid as the only foundation that is exclusive of all humane foundations it doth not exclude God the Father or God the holy Ghost but incluâ—es them rather So then we are not to preach Jesus Christ as the foundation of all our comfort peace and salvation as that God the Father and the holy Ghost are to be shut out of this No they had all their appropriated working in this great Redemption of mankind And therefore as in those places where God the Father is said to be the only God and one God that is not exclusive of the other persons but of made and feigned gods of Idols made gods by men So it 's here Christ Jesus is preached as the foundation yet God the Father and the holy Ghost have their peculiar workings also though only the second Person is the Mediator And therefore secondly Christ Jesus cannot be preached as the foundation unless the Doctrine of God the Father and the holy Ghost be also made known Hence are those expressions He that knoweth the Sonne knoweth the Father also And He that denieth the Sonne denieth the Father And he that honoureth the Sonne honoureth the Father John 8.19 John 5.23 The Doctrine of Christ as Mediatour cannot be laid down without the Doctrine of God the Father giving his Sonne to be thus a Mediatour for us and the Spirit of God as applying working and sealing all those benefits that Christ hath purchased Hence Christ doth often acknowledge the Father in that work he came to do for mankind So that Christ Jesus is the foundation but there may be a more explicite revealing of what is necessarily implied in this foundation A second Objection is Is Christ only to be preached as the foundation And are people to be built upon him Then what need Ministers preach of any thing else but Christ What need they preach of faith and repentance Especially Why should they preach of the threatnings and the curse of the Law of the torments of Hell Doth it become the Ministers of the Gospel to be sonnes of thunder Have they any work to do but to offer Christ to every one Every Sermon should it not be an Ho to every one that is thirsty naked or miserable that is burdened and laden to come to Christ Thus indeed some have runne into extremity and thought Christ was not preached because he is not alwayes proffered as a Saviour to sinners but the Law and Duties and Hell torments are preached Now to this we say many things First When the Ministers of God preach duties the work of repentance or mortification they preach them not as foundations They do not lay them in Christs room and therefore they do not crosse this Text. Doth not this Paul who is so carefull to lay no other foundation but Christ diligently exhort in other places to avoid sinne to live in the fervent practice of holy duties Who is more zealous in this way than Paul Paul to these very Corinthians hath many severe admonitions to make them humble and sorrowfull for their sinnes yet he did not lay another foundation because these are preached only as the way whereby Christ may be obtained We do not then transgresse this Text when we preach repentance to the sinner humility to the proud man heavenly-mindedness to the earthly man righteousnnesse to the unjust man chastity to the unclean man We do not forget our Office we do not runne from our Text because we preach them not as a foundation Indeed if any preach them so as to rest on them to put confidence in them this man layeth another foundation but so do not the Orthodox we preach Christ the meritorious cause duties are the way not the cause And although Christ be said to be in a different sense the way yet duties are the way Christ is the way effectively and meritorious but so are not duties Secondly Though the Ministers are to lay no other foundation yet they are to build upon this they must enlarge themselves in the explication of this foundation They must not build hay or stubble but gold and precious stone So that we are not only to lay the foundation but to adde all other things that may make us a comely building upon Christ Thirdly To preach Christ is not only to preach Christ as the Object matter but all the things Christ would have us to preach That is to be observed we preach Christ when we preach all those things he hath commanded as well as when he is the subject matter of our Sermons When Paul about the Lords Supper said I delivered unto you that also which I received of the Lord Christ Here he preached Christ as well as when he said This is a faithfull saying Christ came into the world to save sinners So that here may be a great mistake thou thinkest Christ is never preached but when he is named when he is the matter of the Doctrine and Use Yet when we preach the whole counsel of God and deliver what ever he hath commanded us to reveal to our people then we preach Christ Thus the Apostles in their voyages and journeys where they went are said to preach Christ and in those Sermons they did not onely preach Jesus to be the Messias but also commanded all other duties of faith repentance love as the Auditories did require Fourthly We are to preach duties but in reference to Christ Take any particular grace that the Ministers of the Gospel provoke men to this cannot be done without bringing the soul to Christ and therefore though the Ministers of the Gospel do not in every Sermon name it yet it is to be supposed As for example take repentance we say every ungodly sinner unlesse he repent unlesse sinne be a burden an heavy bitternesse to him and he fully forsake it he must necessarily perish Now many wayes Christ is concerned in this For 1. He cannot repent and be humbled for sinne unlesse Christ give him strength Without me ye can do nothing The branch separated from the tree hath no moisture no juyce in it John 15. Thus a man without Christ hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an hard heart a withered heart an heart without any moisture any softnesse so then Christ is here
of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 To be baptized into the name of one argueth that one to be a Person And how absurd would it be to say the Father and the Sonne are Persons but the holy Ghost is an attribute or operation So There are three that dear witnesse in Heaven the Father the Sonne and the Spirit 1 John 5.7 Three he doth not say three things but three viz. Persons as appeareth by the personal operations These bare witnesse in Heaven Some reade The Spirit of God descended in the shape of a Dove which plainly denoteth a thing subsisting not an attribute We are said To sin against him which must needs imply a person Thou hast lied to God Act 5.4 That which is here said to be God is called the holy Ghost vers 3. Thou hast lied to the holy Ghost And the sinne against the holy Ghost shall never be forgiven Matth. 12.31 Lastly There is attributed understanding and will to him Vnderstanding the Spirit of God searcheth the deep things of God and the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.11 And Will 1 Cor. 14. where he reckoneth up several operations Even as the same Spirit giveth to whom he pleaseth So that you see the Texts are so clear that were not men sadly forsaken by God they could not deny these things In the second place Let us prove that it 's not a chief spirit among Angels but in deed and in truth of the same Nature with God Now some choice Arguments to prove this may be reduced into these heads First The Name of God is directly and properly not metaphorically attributed to him Thus God is said to speak by the holy Prophets which have been ever since the world begun And if you ask What Person it is in the God-head 2 Pet. 1.21 The Prophets spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost So that the holy Ghost was that God who enlightened and moved all the Prophets that were from the beginning of the world Thus Acts 5.4 Why hath Satan filled thy heart thou hast not lied to man but to God Ananias he thought he had only to do with men but mark the opposition not man but God especially 1 Cor. 12.3 4. There are diversities of gifts but the same spirit the same Lord the same God Spirit Lord and God So that by what Texts we can prove God the Father to be God the same we can prove the holy Ghost to be God Secondly The holy Ghost hath those works attributed to him which do onely belong unto a God Such as God only can do as Creation Sanctification and Redemption and miraculous operations These things do demonstrate and prove a God Creation Psal 33 6. By the word of the Lord the Heavens were made and by the Spirit or breath of his mouth thâ—y were created Job 33.4 The Spirit of God made me Thus in the Creation at first The Spirâ—t moved on the waters as the Hen on the eggs giving vivifical influence For Redemption the holy Ghost concurreth to that in preparing and fitting the body of Christ and sanctifying it to be an oblation Hence Christ is said To be conceived of the holy Ghost which could not be an Angel for then an Angel would have been greater than Christ And secondly In the application of the Benefus of the Redemption to the godly The holy Ghost both applieth them and assureth thereof The Spirit of God that heareth witnesse with our spirit Rom. 8.16 And we are sealed by the holy Spirit of God Ephes 4.30 Thirdly In the works of miraculous operations So 1 Cor. 12. all those extraordinary and miraculous gifts are attributed to the holy Ghost Hence he is called The finger of God Luke 11.12 by which Christ is said to cast out Devils And on the Feast of Pentecost He descended in a mighty rushing wind and cloven tongues of fire filling all the Apostles with miraculous gifts Acts 2.3 4. Lastly The works of Sanctification Faith Repentance and all other graces are wrought by him Yea he is called The holy Spirit because that is his peculiar Office to work holinesse and to sanctifie men by the Ministry Now Divines say It is a farre greater work and argueth more power to sanctifie the natures of men then to make a new world yet this is constantly applied to the holy Ghost though not so as to exclude the other Persons in their order Hence likewise all the means of Sanctification viz. the Ministry and the gifts thereof are also given to the same Spirit Acts 25. Over which the holy Ghost hath made you overseers Thirdly The attributes and properties of a God as well as the works of a God are also in Scripture given to the holy Ghost omnipresence filling the whole world Whither shall I go from thy Spirit None can flie from it Psal 139.7 His Omniscience in that he searcheth the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.11 His Omnipotency as you heard His Eternity called the Eternal Spirit Heb. 9 14. Though some understand that of Christs Divine Nature and being before the world in that he made it Unity with the other Persons These three are one So that having the properties of God he must needs be God Lastly The religious worship that is given to the Holy Ghost doth not onely argue he is a Person but a Divine Person equal with God And 1. We have the Angels giving worship unto him whereas John when he would have worshipped the Angel he is forbidden Worship thou God Revel 19.10 So that religious worship is only to be given to God And thus the Angels in that glorious vision sang Holy holy holy unto God Now it 's worth your observing that this vision is attributed both to the Father to the Sonne and to the holy Ghost To the Father that is without doubt Isa 6. for there he is described as a glorious Judge in all Majesty To the Son John 12.41 This spake Esaias when he saw his glory and spake of him viz. of Christ as the Evangelist applieth it Lastly To the holy Ghost Act 28.25 That men also are to give religious worship to the holy Ghost appeareth in their baptismal profession Being baptized into the Name of the holy Ghost As also by that form of prayer and blessing The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and communion of the holy Ghost sometimes â—sed in the Epistles Thus you see the Scripture clearly determining this matter of faith And if we cannot comprehend how there should be one God and three Persons eveâ—y one of them God and yet but one God you must remember That faith is the captivating of the understanding unto a meer tâ—stimony It 's not science but faith that Christians professe In humane things Argumentum facit fidem in divine things Fides facit argumentum Neither is it any wonder that we cannot in the creatures find an exact comparison to
no Sunne beames to comfort and refresh Secondly Here only is the Foundation of all graces or the Mediatour by whom God is gracious to us As they say in Aegypt there is never any rain from Heaven so all that part of mankind which is without Christ partaketh not of gracious influences of Heaven God is a consuming fire to them There is no death of Christ no Ascention no Intercession no pleading for them they come into Gods presence without Beniamin Thirdly Only in the Church are such persons who are qualified for gracious Priviledges Here only is true Piety here only is Faith Repentance Here only men do in a right manner pray to God All those moral vertues and excellent endowments amongst the Heathens though gilded over were nothing but drosse Vse of Instruction Are the Churches of God thus Temples of God and should every one of us be thus in particular Oh then how holy how godly how orderly should all our Assemblies be What Jeremy can make Lamentations bitter enough to see how this Temple of God is made a dunghill How comes so much ignorance and prophanenesse to be amongst us Are we not places prepared rather for the Devil and his evil Spirits to dwell with us then Temples of the Holy Ghost Know this that your defilements are worse then those of Heathens and therefore it 's said Judgment should begin at the House of God 1 Pet. 4.17 And in Ezechiel's Prophesse The destroying Angel is commanded to begin at the Sanctuary Ezek. 9.6 Yet we sit and hear these things and do not fear and tremble Where is Gods gracious presence discovering it self How few are the men that have God and his Spirit dwelling in them but rather their souls are possessed with Devils Hence cometh that pride that malice that opposition unto all godlinesse Oh then let us so live that we may say Such men have God and his Spirit dwelling in them Be men affected with understanding of these things To see nothing but a man in you nothing of God yea to see nothing but a Beast or a Devil in you how contrary is it to that holy relation we stand in And that the Spirit of God dwels in you We have considered what that is to which the Church of Corinth is compared viz. The Temple of God what more is to be said of that will come in the next verse I proceed to the ground and reason of the Comparison Why they were the Temple of God and that followeth in the next words And that the Spirit of God dwels in you The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath many significations or uses in the Scripture Here it is Causall as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ye are In many other places it 's so used Jere. 42. Thou art angry And We have sinned i. e. For Joh. 2. they staid not there many daies and the Passover was at hand i. e. For. So here you are the Temple of God for the Spirit of God dwels in you Thus you see it 's a causall Inference In the Reason consider the Person described Secondly His efficacy or operation The Person described is said to be the Spirit 2. The Relation to whom the Spirit of God Thirdly The operation or effect it dwels in you The Greek word Spirit as the Hebrew Ruach is of a vast signification in the Scripture I know none more boundlesse but when attributed to God it signifieth either absolutely the Divine Nature common to the three Persons Joh. 4. God is a Spirit because of his most pure and simple essence 2. It signifieth the Divine Nature of Christ as when it is said to be dead in the body but quickned in the Spirit 1 Pet. 3.18 3. Sometimes the anger of God and the effects of his wrath Thus we read of a Spirit of judgment and burning Isa 4. And a Spirit of giddinesse c. Lastly Relatively for the third Person in the holy Trinity Baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 And thus it 's used here because it 's called the Spirit of God Now this Texe doth two waies prove the Divine Nature of the Holy Ghost 1. From the Manner of argunig They were the Temple of God because the Spirit did dwell in them which could be no sound Argument were not the Holy Ghost God And 2. Partly Because Temples wâ—re built to none but God even as Sacrifices were offered to God only And this is so ingrafted a truth in nature and acknowledged so professedly by Papists that when they are charged for Idolatry in dedicating their Temples to such and such Saints they say Temples indeed are to be built only to God but they name such a Saint only for memorial not as a Person they dedicate them to But that distinction is a meer fig leaf if you consider their practice So that we have two Doctrines 1. That the holy Spirit of God is God 2. This Spirit of God dwels in the Church These Points will be very profitable For the first The Holy Ghost is God There have not only Heretiques of old as the Macedonians or of late in other Countries as Polonia and Transilvana Servetus and the Socinians but even some in this land very lately not only maintained privately but have published Books on purpose to prove the Holy Ghost not to be God of the same essence with the Father and the Sonne Indeed there was a long contention whether verball or real it 's disputed between the Greek Churches and the Latin Churches about the procession of the Holy Ghost whether from the Father and the Sonne also or Father only but no doubt at all about the Deity of the Holy Ghost I intend to handle this point Practically yet so as first Doctrinally to inform your judgments about the truth of it and that I may do it the more orderly you must know that those who have denyed the holy Ghost to be God have been divided into two waies Either First Such who have thought him to be no Person but to be an attribute or operation in and from God which in man we would call an accident So that as Gods wisdome Gods anger and power they do not make a distinct Person they say So neither doth this concerning the holy Ghost but is no more than the mighty power of God putting forth it self Secondly Others make him a Person yet not a God but in the fore-front of the Angels they make him the chief Angel as they say there is a Prince of Devils But the Scripture is very clear to overthrow those damnable Heresies And 1. That he is a Person not an attribute appeareth by all those personal operations that are given to him So that by what arguments we can prove God the Father or any man to be a Person by the same we may prove the holy Ghost to be a Person as that form in which we are baptized Into the name
represâ—nt this though many learned men ancient and later have used similitudes because there is no such thing as a God besides the true God And therefore Basil said well to the Heâ—etique desiring a similitude to represent the Trinity Da mihi alium Deum aliam trinitatem tibi ostendam Thus we have laboured to establish your faith in this necessary point Now I shall shew Why the holy Ghost is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spirit The word at first did signifie wind Why then doth the Spirit of God assume this comparative expression of wind Or rather Why is he called a Spirit Even for these Reasons First Essentially For the simplicity and purity of his Essence and this is common to every other Person for God is a Spirit Secondly Hypostatically For his personal propriety because he proceeds from the Father and the Sonne by way of spiration the manner whereof we cannot comprehend no more than the generation of the Sonne Thirdly Effectively Many wayes 1. For the Incomprehensibility of the actions of the Spirit John 3. The wind bloweth where it lists and no man knoweth from whence it comes so is the Spirit 2. The Diversity of his operations As the breathings of the winde is from several corners the Spirits dispensations have not been alwayes alike 3. For the Efficacity moving the hearts of men to love good to hate evil 4. For the Impossibility of resisting this 5. For the Necessity of it to every good worke as the winde is to the ship Vse Is the holy Spirit God Then take heed of that blasphemous scoffing which many carnal and wicked people are guilty of which is to mock at the very name of the Spirit If a sinne against the holy Ghost be unpardonable and doing despite unto the Spirit of grace leaveth a man in an impossibility of recovering How darest thou let thy heart and tongue be thus set on hell fire Thy body and soul is to be the temple of the Spirit Thy duties are to come from this Spirit and doest thou deride it Vse of Admonition Take heed of entituling thy own fancies and delusions to the Spirit of God For seeing the holy Ghost is God it must be a capital crime to make such sinfull fancies and thoughts that come from thy corrupt heart to flow from the holy Spirit of God If to counterfeit the publick Seal or Coin of a Land be a capital crime How great a sinne is it to â—ake thy sinfull and carnal affections as if they were the workings of Gods Spirit And that the Spirit of God dwels in you Two Propositions you heard were contained in these words First That the Spirit of God is God which hath been demonstrated Secondly That the Spirit of God dwels in his Church We therefore proceed to this second Doctrine And now to open this let us consider First What the phrase to dwell in the Church implieth Secondly How he dwels there As the Spirit of God is said to dwell in us so in other places God promiseth to dwell in his people 2 Cor. 6 16. And Christ is said To dwell in our hearts by faith Ephes 3.17 All which are not to be understood of any visible or local habitation much lesse comprehensive that we cold comprehend God for he is as he said one whose circumference is every where and center no where The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him but it is meant in a mystical and spiritual manner Now this phrase To have the Spirit dwell in us denoteth First The propriety that it hath to us that we are his possession as an house is a mans own where he is Lord and Master And this is worthy of consideration That we who once were the Devils he dwelt in us He ruleth in the hearts of the disobedient Ephes 2. have now him expelled from us and the Spirit of God taking us for his possession We pity persons bodily possessed that they foame and rore and are throwne sometimes into the fire and sometimes in the water but he who is a wicked man the Devil possesseth his soul more dreadfully he puts him upon anger malice upon unclean lusts and noisome filthy wayes and though many be of the Church visibly yet in regard of their own particular they are thus possessed by the Devil who hath their heart their eyes their tongues their whole body so that they seem to be a walking Hell So that herein is a wonderfull change when the Spirit of God comes and takes possession of a people who before were captives to Satan and led aside according to his will 2 Tim. 2.26 Secondly When it 's said The Spirit of God dwels in a people it supposeth That he doth fashion and prepare them for himself For every lodging is not fit for so noble a guest but as great men carry their rich furniture with them to have convenient lodgings so also doth the Spirit of God raise up a people by illumination and sanctification to be a fit habitation for him As they say Anima fabricat sibi domicilium The soulâ— makes the body so curiously organized and diversified for it's self to be in So much more doth the Spirit of God put spiritual life and quicken up our dead hearts that we may be prepared for the enjoyment of him It 's said The Spirit of God moved upon those waters Genes 1. that covered the deep when the earth was without forme or void Thus the Spirit of God doth take us out of our natural confusion and horrible darknesse and makes us comely with those ornaments he puts upon us So that as it is impossible to have the Sunne but withall we must enjoy glorious light So we cannot have the Spirit of God but withall many precious and heavenly gifts will be bestowed upon us Oh then how few persons how few Congregations can endure the lustre of this Doctrine What heavenly or precious jewels have they of Gods Spirit Thirdly When it 's said The Spirit of God dwels in us it denoteth The familiarity and condescending Communion that God vouchsafeth unto his children To dwell with one is an act of communion Hence 1 Peter 3.17 Husbands are commanded to dwell with their wives Our Savior expresseth this familiarity by John I will come in and sup with him and he with me Revel 3.20 So that what was spoken of Moses as so rare a priviledge He spake to God face to face as one friend speaketh to another in some kinde of sense though not after the same manner is true of every godly person Hence the Spirit of God is said to enable us to cry Abba Father Galat. 4 6. which though it suppose a filial reverential frame in us yet also godly boldnesse and confidence Hence he is also said To witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God Rom. 8. So that children being admitted to sit at their Fathers Table have that bread which dogs may not eat of They have
was shut out of his fathers blessing But this is farre greater to be shut out of Christs prayers Christs intercession and Christs expiation Thou canst not retain sinne and Christ too Thou canst not love the world and Christ too What hope then and refuge remains for thee If Christ cast thee off Is there any other remedy left Can any Angels help thee Are there any more Christs No thy case is altogether desperate who art cast off by him yet men sit and hear these things without fear or trembling And Christ is Gods We are now come to the last round in the Ladder à primo ad ultimum we are now at the last step we cannot go further to say God is any thing else beside himself for he is of himself and to himself All the other particulars may well be received without any difficulty but this seemeth to be a pill hardly taken down The expression seemeth hard Christ is Gods as if Christ were not God but made for God as the world is for the godly But Chrysostome saith well Though the words be the same yet the sense is much different The world is ours as being made for us we are Christs as being his creatures purchased but Christ is Gods as his most beloved Sonne This is true but yet this is not fully the Apostles meaning Therefore Christ is considered two wayes Either First As an absolute God in which sense he is said To think it no robbery to be equal with God Phil. 3.6 And thus though he be the Sonne of God yet he is equal with God Or Secondly As a Mediatour consisting of two Natures Divine and Humane Now if we consider Christ in respect of his Humane so that is a creature and wholly to be referred to God Or if we consider him as a Mediatour thus he is in reference to God the Father For a Mediatour is to bring us to him who is at distance from us Thus Christ both as a man and as a Mediatour in his whole Mediatory Office is not for himself but for God the Father as it is 1 Cor. 15.24 When the Sonne shall give up the Kingdome that God may be all in all We have two places like this 1 Cor. 11.3 The head of the woman is man and the head of Christ is God that is not in respect of his Divine Nature for the first Person cannot be said to be the Head or cause of the second but the beginning but in respect of his Mediatory Office So John 14.28 My Father is greater than I in respect of his Manhood and his Mediatory Office I shall not enter into these sublime Disputes about Christ as a Mediatour Whether that be Divine Worship that belongs to him as so And if Divine How there can be a primary Object of Religious Worship as God the Father and a secondary Object as Christ the Mediatour This though a noble Question yet because not so practical I wave onely some positive things I shall deliver in the point Observe That Christ as man and as a Mediatour is wholly Gods His Office and work as a Mediatour is to reconcile us to God the Father He is called The Saviour and the Mediatour The Saviour in respect of the end which is salvation that he obtaineth for believers and Mediatour in respect of the means and way by which this is accomplished To open this take notice First That Christ is a Person consisting of a Divine and Humane Nature not by mixtion or confusion or by meer inhabitation but by a Personal Vnion which is commonly called Hypostatical I shall not tell you how much that word Hypostasis troubled the Church The Latine Church having a clear contrary thought about the word to the Greek Church So that when they both agreed in the same thing yet the words and phrases they condemned in one another as heretical But the Scripture is very clear both that Christ was God and also man yet but one person not making two Christs and this is one main fundamental Article of Religion The Devil in former ages alwayes endeavoured to rob him of one of these Natures and some have raised these monstrous and damnable heresies again from hell but this foundation and pillar standeth sure Secondly By reason of this Personal Vnion though there be not a real communication of the Properties of each Nature yet there is a verbal one in the concrete both things are predicated of Christ As for example though the Divine Nature is not passible but the Humane Nature onely nor the Humane Nature omnipotent and omniscient but the Divine only yet of Christ we predicate that he suffered that he died that he is omnipotent and omniscient though this be true in respect of one Nature only Thirdly Christ being thus a Person that he may be our Redeemer he is cloathed with those three Offices which fit him fully for our Redemption He is first Medius in respect of his Person God and man Then he is Mediatour in respect of his Office His Office is three-fold a Prophet a Priest and a King This makes him the Trismegist the ter maximus Now we must not judge these things metaphysical curiosities No These are the Articles of our Christian Religion these are to be received by a divine and firme faith Yea in believing Christs Person and his Office lieth all the comfort and treasure of a Christian It 's Christ that should be our study our meditation day and night Quis sit qualis Who he is and what he is Now the Doctrine speaks of Christ both in respect of his Humane Nature and as he is a Mediatour not as God Let us see then How Christ as a man and as a Mediatour is Gods And First His Incarnation and coming into the world it was not for himself but for God He therefore took our Nature upon him that he might bring to God the Father his Elect people God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Sonne John 3.16 And To us a Sonne is borne to us a Sonne is given Isa 9.6 So that this work of Incarnation this coming into the world from the bosome of the Father which is so stupendious a mystery is originally from the Father It was to do Gods work to obey his will and therefore Christ is called Gods servant Isa 52.13 Not that Christ came into the world against his own will or as if this were against his own desire but God the Father is the original of all Secondly That Christ is Gods appeareth in that he acknowledgeth his Doctrine and Truth not to be his but his Fathers taking all off from himself and making himself only a Minister or Embassadour coming in his Fathers Name and revealing his will See this notably John 8 26 28. I speak those things which I heard of him I do nothing of my self but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things So vers 42. I came not of
sinfull Effects first Of striving about worldly things is discovered 1. In passionate and railing speeches Let all clamour and evil speaking be laid aside Ephes 4.31 Mat. 5.22 Whosoever is angry with his brother calling him fool is in danger of hell fire Little do you think of this whose mouths are as loathsome as open sepulchres Oh the names and foul language that that mad rage makes thee cast upon others Whereas the Angel did not give the Devil railing accusations Those foul mouths they argue a foule heart that black tongue of thine will at last be punished with black darknesse in hell without repentance 2. It 's seen in backbiting slandering inventing of lies against others whispering and secretly reproaching of others where they are not present to justifie themselves These sinnes should not be named among Christians but now men are not only wolves but Devils to men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 falsly slandering and traducing others To be a backbiter is reckoned up in the Catalogue of the great sinnes the Heathens were guilty of Rom. 1. and Psal 15.3 is made the character of one Who shall no◠ascend unto Gods holy hill Thou hast a Devil in thy tongue and the other hath in his ear to whom thou spreadest these slanders Thus Christ himself How was he slandered And Paul Whereas the dogs with their tongues did lick Lazarus sores whole thou doest with thy tongue make the whole places sore But consider that Psalm of Doeg a small mischievous slanderer What shall be given unto thee O thou lying tongue Coals of fire Psal 120 5 Fire is thy sinne and fire will be thy punishment 3. A delight to go to Law and to implead others at the Courts of Judicature The Corinthians strifes did break out in this manner 1 Cor. 6. They went to Law with one another Why do ye not rather suffer wrong saith he Now it 's true the Apostle doth not there prohibit all kind of going to Law for our own but the readinesse of heart thereunto and the scandal of going before Heathens and their want of preparation of heart to suffer wrong rather than to go to that extremity they did not try all other wayes of reconceliation first And is not brawling and squabling the very trade the meat and drink of many quarrelling people They will go to Law presently Indeed the Prophet saith To the Law to the testimony but that Law would quickly moderate this Thou wilt goe to Law whatsoever it cost thee what if it cost thee thy soul thy salvation as it may doe by thy anger malice revenge and impatience therein Lastly This civil or uncivil contention rather is seen in the procuring of all that hurt and mischief to others we can either in Name or Estate So that whereas the command is to procure all good thou art ready to do all mischief to thy neighbour We might think these things need to be preached onely to Jewes and Turks to Canibals or such savage men but even Christians are turned such horses and mules that they need this bit to be put in their mouths So that you see this strife is in tongue and hand and if the tongue hath a world of evil how much evil then is there when tongue and hand and heart are all full As for striving in religious matters that is seen two wayes 1. When men are given to cavill and contradict the truth though never so evidently discovered especially because of the purity of it because it convinceth and arraigneth thy lusts greatly condemning them Thus the Pharisees were frowardly bent to oppose Christ insomuch that when they were silenced and had nothing to say they did as the Devil to him Depart for a season and afterwards came to tempt him again Take heed of such a froward disposition it 's farre from the nature of Christs Sheepe which heare his voice and follow him 2. When men dote about Questions and Disputes that have no profit or if profit yet attend not to them in their place The Apostle condemneth this doting and striving about words and for this reason Because they profit not Tit. 3.9 A man with needlesse disputes is like a field that beareth nothing but bryars and thorns There came a man to ask Christ Whether many should be saved Our Saviour doth not answer the Question directly but bids him Strive to enter in at the straight gate Luke 13.23 thereby rebuking his curiosity And Zuinglius did truly observe and complain That men seldome came from religious disputes more crucified and more heavenly I intend to spend but one Sermon on this Subject and therefore I must heap many things together I come to the Aggravation of this sinne of Contention 1. This striving temper is directly opposite to many commands that vehemently presse love brotherly kindnesse peaceablenesse As much as lyeth in you have peace with all men Rom. 12.18 Be affable be courteous 1 Pet. 3.8 Thus you see as Christ himself did not strive or lift up his voice in the street but lived meekly peaceably so ought we 2. These strifes and quarrellings make all our prayers and Religion in vain God heareth no prayer from that man who is in anger and malice with others Forgive us our sins as we forgive others Yea if a man have brought his gift to the altar and remember such a man hath ought against him he must leave that and be reconciled Mat. 5.24 Oh how could contentions and quarrels be thus among you if this were thought on 3. The relation we are in commands peace and unity There is one God one Christ one Spirit one Baptism Eph. 4.5 Why fall ye out seeing ye are Brethren so that Christianity is reproached when you seek to devour one another it is an argument the faith of Christ never had any power over thee As for the good Contention I mentioned that is When men strive and contend for the truths of God for his honour and glory when he is zealous to reprove and punish sinne There are many men that call this Contention and this they condemn for turbulency as Ahab called Elijah the troubler of Israel because he rebuked him and Jezabel for their cruelty and injustice And thus Jeremiah you heard was accounted a man of strife that set all together by the ears Now this striving for God against the sinnes against the humours of men cannot be omitted without great sacriledge And if the suppressing of sinne in an orderly way make any strife it 's thy fault not his that is zealous Christ himself came to set father against sonne and a mans enemies in his own house against him but this was not the fault of Christs Doctrine but of their corruption And further This striving and trouble will work a good effect The Angel that came down with healing moved and troubled the water but that was for good So the Physician he stirreth the humours he puts into great pain and sicknesse for a while
to grow in knowledge and mind the things of Religion but still we must be sensible of our own weaknesses If any man think he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know 1 Cor. 8.2 Oh it 's a dangerous thing when a man that is weak doth not know his weaknesse but thinketh he doth know as much as others Thirdly The last efficient are for these will come in better in the after verses Worldly hopes and desires of carnal advantages What made Judas cause such a sad breach among the Disciples but earthly gain The Apostle chargeth this upon many false Apostles this made the shipwrack of their faith and a good conscience when men judge gain godlinesse judge gain Religion and measure all things by this it cannot but make great divisions Many of those Hereticks in former times were so discontent they missed that worldly greatnesse and pomp they expected which made Austin put this in the definition of an Heretick that he doth beget or follow new opinions Alicujus temporalis commodi gratiâ for the sake of some temporal advantage Lastly There is an occasional cause but not efficient and that hath been the tyranny and scandalous lives of Church-officers This hath many times made sad rents Church-officers by their loose lives and rigid cruelty have made schismes and then they cry out of them and punish them One cause of Tertullians Montanizing was the loose lives of the Roman Clergy We see by Christs Parable Luke 12.45 it 's no new thing for such Officers to rule in Christs house as shall drink and be drunk and beat their fellow-servants putting off the thoughts of their Masters coming Therefore the bloody cruelty or licentious prophane lives of those that have ruled in the Church have made a just cause of troubles and divisions neither are those that make the division then to be blamed if it be in that which is good and after a good manner but the actings and lives of such Church-officers I should speak of the final causes but they will come in afterwards Vse 1. Of Instruction That Vnity and Catholick consent is not a sure mark of a Chuâ—ch or divisions a note of a false oxe The Papists they think they strike us to the ground by this You Protestants are fallen into manifold Sects they will reckon up fourscore factions Now this indeed is a very plausible objection but it might have been cast upon the Church of Corinth and upon the primitive Churches As for the Protestants they that take themselves to be so indeed for Socinians and others we own them not they differ not in fundamentals In matter of Church-goverment or Rites of Religion there may be some discrepancy but in fundamental Articles they consent And as for Papists themselves their Writers have factions and bitter strifes one with another as might be shewed at large They have no such consent as the vulgar people are made to believe Do not therefore be scandalized to see diversity of factions and opinions What grief is it to hear people say one is of this way and another is of that way who can tell what is true and so they grow very Atheists If thy faith were sound this would not stagger thee God hath wise ends in suffering of these breaches Vse 2. Take heed whom you call factious and seditious for if men go no farther than to strive for the true Doctrine against errors or the power of godlinesse against prophanenesse and that in a prudent and orderly way this is no faction but zeal Christ himself made these divisions Father against sonne and son against father to disquiet Satans kingdome to bring sinne to a due punishment to make a cord as Christ did to cast out all prophanenesse and superstition out of the Church of God This is still no faction but true zeal and love to God Vse 3. Of Admonition to those that are or would be accounted godly be humble modest keep your places God hath put you in Oh think it had been better thou hadst never been born than to make any sinfull divisions in the Church I say sinfull For to divide from sinne and Idolatry is a necessary duty onely be sure hat be sinne and Idolatry which thou callest so All that reproach and scandal which comes to Religion and godlinesse by divisions will in a great measure fall on thee Take up Jonahs resolution when he saw the tempests and winds did rise because of him Take and throw me into the sea for I have sinned If godly men cannot be of one mind yet humility moderation pure ends and love to the Word and Ministry will much further it for the divisions of Reuben were great searchings of heart Cursed be their fury for in their anger they dug down a wall yea they tore the body of Christ Are ye not carnal and walk as men The Apostle had proved they were carnal and so incapable subjects for the sublimer Mysteries of Christ by an enumeration of severall sinnes that did necessarily demonstrate this upon which he makes a repetition or re-inforcement of the Conclusion to be proved Are ye not carnal Where the Interrogation doth put more quickness and sharpness into his words And for the further amplification and shame of them he addeth Do ye not walk as men As if he had said What a reproach and dishonour is it to you who are called of God who have put on Christ who are sanctified by his Name to be as other men of the world Passionate as they are Covetous earthly envious and quarrelsome as they are In the Scripture the word man or according to a man hath severall significations Sometimes it is put for love and mildness Thus God said in Hosea Hos 11.4 He drew them by the cords of a man that is love And so to chastise with the rod of man 2 Sam. 7.14 is to do it moderately and mercifully At other times the Phrase to speak after a man denotes to use any similitude or Comparison from matters used amongst men Gal. 3.15 But most frequently the word is used in a debasing way Either for frailty and misery As What is man And That they may know themselves to be but men Psal 9.20 Ye shall die like men Or else for that which is sinfull and wicked because man is wholly corrupted and plunged into all sin Rom. 6.19 Hos 6.9 So that to call one a man or to say a man you name all sinne and misery at the same time Oh how should this debase and vilifie the proudest and higest of men How should this make them look upon themselves as worse then Toades or Serpents in many respects And in this sense it is used here Walk ye not as men in opposition to God his Power and Holiness which he demonstrated in all Believers Doct. That all those who are named Christians and would be accounted so yet walke and live as those that are more than meer men They must not
them I rather think the latter because it 's used as a Name of honour If any man suffer as a Christian saith Peter 1 Pet. 1.3 Now this title Christian is of great importance Many are apt to say As they are a Christian when there is no reall Christianity in them For to be a Christian is as much as to be one anointed For as Christ was so called because annointed with all Graces in an unlimited manner so every Member of Christ is called a Christian because anointed with Graces Oh then thou that gloriest in that thou art no Heathen no Infidel no Jew but a Christian consider whether this be not a vain boast For is thy prophaneness thy wickedness thy impieties the anointing of Gods Spirit So that to have the reall power of Christianity is a difficult and straight work In after times the title Christian still continued And although they were sometimes called Cornelians from Cornelius Cyrillians from Cyrillus and Joannitae from John Chrysostome Eustathiani from Eustathius yet they did not own these Names And as Heresies began to rise up in many places some teaching one thing some another the Christian that kept to the true Faith that was constantly and universally believed in all the ages of the Church beginning from Christ and the Apostles times was called Catholique or universall in which sense he said Christianus mihi nomen Catholicus cognomen So that to be a Catholique was to believe that Faith which had been universally taught first by Christ and the Apostles afterwards by faithfull men in all ages And for the Papist to call himself a Catholique when the Roman Church hath so manifestly degenerated from the Apostolical and Scripture Doctrine and for them to make the Roman and the Catholique Church all one is as absurd as if a man should call London or England all the world The Papist therefore is no Catholique in a true sense because he cannot prove his Faith by the Apostolical Doctrine in the Scripture yea accuseth the Scripture as insufficient And some of their learned men have confessed that if they should try thir cause by the Scripture meerly it was gone I shall instance in one famous Name given to such who truly own Christ and his Truths and that is Protestants They were called thus not many years since in Luther's time whereas the Orthodox had got some indulgence for the profession of their true Religion and pure worship The Popish party did importune the Emperour of Germany to make an Edict at Worms and afterwards at Spires That no Religion should be publickly professed and owned but the Roman The Lutheran Party both Noblemen and others made a Solemn Protestation against that unjust Decree and ever since all that reformed from Popery have been called Protestants So that all those who have a compliance with Popery that admire their way in their heart or act by their principles cannot truly be called Protestants Thus you have heard the chief names by which Christians are called And still after no mans name And whereas Papists call us Lutherans Calvinists c. we indeed own Luther and Calvin and such men for worthy and famous instruments of Gods glory in their time but it is their calumny to call us after their Names It is true a man by way of difference or distinction he may say a Lutheran and Calvinist to denote some peculiar opinion but to own any man as an Author of our Faith or the foundation of Religion is not consistent with true Christianity There are pregnant Reasons for this First Because as our faith in regard of the efficient cause is the gift of God so the object and motive of it must be Gods authoriâ—y because he speaks and revealeth such things Humane faith is because a man saâ—â—h such a thing divine faith because God saith so Now see how carefull the Apostle was that the Churches faith should not be in humane wisdome but in the mighty power of God And so the Thessalonians received it not as the word of man but as the word of God 1 Thess 2.13 The Apostle saith They had not dominion of their faith 2 Cor. 1.24 They were not able to make any Articles of Faith necessary to be believed You see then none may be called after men we are not their Disciples their believers for that which resteth on men is but an humane faith and we ought to have a divine faith Men indeed may be instruments to propound the things to be believed but the motive is a divine testimony because God saith so Solomon by his wisdome declared to which woman the childe belonged to but he did not cause the affections of the mother to the child So faithfull Officers of the Church may declare the truth of God but they cannot work faith in thee Secondly Therefore we may not be called after men to build on them because we are not baptized into any mans name and we are onely to professe those in whose name we are baptized into 1 Cor. 1.13 Paul doth powerfully urge this Argument why they might not say they were of Paul because they were not baptized into the name of Paul So then his Disciple thou art and his badge thou onely art to wear in whose name thou wert baptized and that is not into the name of a man but the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost Thirdly The Apostle presseth another Argument Was Paul crucified for you Did Paul die for you 1 Cor. 1.13 His meaning is In him onely we are to believe who is able to make our reconciliation with God who hath wrought our Redemption for us And therefore it 's a very high sinne to build your faith on a man It 's to make him a Saviour it 's to put him in Christs room Fourthly Our Apostle urgeth a further Argument in the same Chapter He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord And Christ is made unto us Wisdome So all boasting in men is to be excluded as well as boasting in works Oh but what is the cause of so many errors of so many divisions It 's from boasting in men such a man and such a man and by this meanes the glory due to God is taken away Fifthly The Scripture makes it a great sinne in matters of Religion and the worship of God to be servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 Now what is it to be a servant of men when as bruit beasts we are wholly led at the command of others believe what they bid us believe worship with such worship as they command yet this hath been an universal sinne in all ages of the Church Men nuzzled in ignorance and pleasing themselves in their folly have without any judgement or information from Gods Word taken such a Religion and followed such a Worship as hath been imposed upon them Hence they have been sometimes of one Religion and sometimes of another because they have been servants to men and not Disciples of Christ
Ordinance Any duty without Christ is like the body without the soul the shadow without the substance Truly saith the Apostle our Communion and fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 Thus Christ is said to come to us and sup with us By which phrases is implyed that the heart of a man should not rest in any duty and stay there but go to Christ in it As they that looked for Christs body were not content to see the linen where his body lay but did still seek after him It was not enough for the Church to be in the Garden where the Spices and Flowers did smell unless she found her Beloved there And thus it 's not enough to come to any duty to pray to hear to draw nigh in any Ordinance unless we meet with Christ himself But to whom are these things known Is it not with us as with little Children they can take a Book they look on it turn over the leaves but know not any of the sense of it Thus it is with many people they come to pray to hear to the Ordinances but to speak of Christ enjoyed by them to have spiritual Communion with Christ in them is such spiritual sense they understand not That was the great sinne of the Jews they rested in the Ordinances and duties of the Law and never looked out to Christ And against this the Apostle doth so vehemently dispute And thus we do with Ordinances of the Gospel people generally rest in the external performance of them and not on Christ in them aâ— if the Wise should be content with the Picture of her Husband not cariâ—g for the Husband himself The preaching of Christ as a foundation in this respect â—s of such practical necessity that all true godlinesse lyeth in this The Apostle speaking the quintessence of all godlinesse saith We are the Circumcision who have no confidence in the flesh but rejoyce in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.3 This is praying this is hearing this is the true performance of any religious duty when we have no confidence in them but rejoyce in Christ Jesus only Lastly We are to preach Christ not only as the foundation of our approaches to God but of all Gods gracious actions and visitations to us We are not only to come to God in Christs name but to expect that God will come to us through Christ God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Cor. 1.19 We are justified in Christ and saved in Christ All Gods gracious actions vouchsafed to us are founded upon Christ as the meritorious cause of them It 's rue the indeed predestination though it be in Christ for the accomplishment of all our spiritual mercies yet it was not for Christ This the Orthodox do well maintain by Scripture that Gods predestinating of us in the Original of it is wholly from the sovereign power and good counsel of God yea that Christ himself is the effect of Predestination from that good pleasure of his he gave his Sonne for us But then all the effâ—cts of Predestination Justification Adoption Remission Sanctification Salvation these all are bestowed for Christs sake They cost blood even the blood of his only Sonne ere we could be partakers of them Thus Christ joyneth Heaven and Earth together makes a Reconciliation between a provoked God and a sinfull sinner And this the Apostle considers when â—e saith That by him all things are reconciled in Heaven and in Earth Col 1.20 Thus you see Christ is a Fountain alwaies running We Ministers and you people may alwaies draw out there and yet the Fountain be never dry He is like those waters of Ezekiel that arise higher and higher In these an Elephant may swimme We may still discover more excellency more fulnesse in him The Queen of Sheba had no spirit to see Solomon in all his glory but behold a greater then Solomon here In the next place let us consider the Reasons why we Ministers are to lay no other foundation but Christ To make him all in all First It 's the main end and scope of the Scriptures only to exalt Christ and the end of the Ministry should be the same with the end of the Scripture All the Prophets before Christ they witnessed of the Messiah still they comforted the people with promises of his coming Abraham though so long before Christs Incarnation yet it 's said He saw Christs day and rejoyced Joh. 8.56 All those Sacrifices which were immediately â—t the beginning of the world did look to Christ they typified him Noah offered a Sacrifice and God did smell a sweet savour of rest Gen. 8. â—1 Alas Could the material Sacrifice do that God careth not for the Rammes and Bullocks upon the hils it smels there offensive but it was because of Christ Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices thou wouldst not have then said I Lord I come Heb 10.9 All those Rammes those Bullocks those Goats they all did typifie a Christ The people that then lived ought not to think that pardon of sin could be had by shedding of their blood Especially the Covenant of grace that God made with Abraham and renewed so many times did relate to Christ the seed in whom all Nations were to be made blessed And it 's good to consider how when the Church was in any great extremity the Prophets would then comfort it about Christ Isa 9. To us a Sonne is born And Isaiah 53. he doth as plainly prophesie Christs sufferings as the Evangelists relate it insomuch that some have called Isaiah the fifth Evangelist And the Prophet Micha He shall be our peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land Mich. 5.5 Thus then you see that all the Old Testament doth wholly tend to magnifie Christ and as for the New Testament that is wholly spent either in relating the History or the gracious Effects of Christ condemning all Doctrines and Opinions that would set up any thing in Christs room Secondly As the Scripture so Gods great purpose and counsell from all eternity was to set up Christ and to have him glorified Therefore would God take such a way as that by his Sonne all mercy should be obtained that so all honour glory and praise might be for ever given to him Hence it is that we read of God the Father sometimes appearing in a glorious manner and owning of him This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased viz. with man kind Mat. 3.17 hear him It 's disputed among Divines whether there could be any other way for our Redemption and Salvation but by him but who can tell what God absolutely may do or not do To be sure God hath determined on this way as that wherein the glory of the Father and of the Sonne may be more magnified If then God was pleased to have all glory given to Christ and to have him set up in all things it 's a great Reason we should honour him whom God would
that Pearle which must not be cast to swine But who are the people that God doth thus honour How few are such favourites How many are amongst us that are not admitted with Moses to come to the top of this Mount They know not what Communion with God meaneth what those filial cryes of Abba Father are Certainly a rational man doth not more differ from a beast than a spiritual man doth from the best rational man that is That as a worme knoweth not what reason and arguments are the best so learned and able men without grace do not know what this enjoying of Gods Spirit and communion with God is we speak though not in an unknown tongue yet unknown matter to such men Fourthly In that the Spirit of God is said to dwell it denoteth A permanent and constant abode in his people For this you must know The Spirit of God is many times working where yet he doth not dwell There is a great difference between transient motions and constant mansions of Gods Spirit Hypocrites and reprobates have the former but not the latter They that wrought miracles had the Spirit of God moving in them but not dwelling in them Even Balaam in that prophetical passage about Israel had a transient motion or a blast of this Spirit but the Spirit of God did not abide in him Yea hereby Caiaphas being high Priest that year was moved to say what he did It 's expedient for one to die for many but yet he knew not what he said So that there is a great difference between the transient motion of Gods Spirit and his constant inhabitation Thus many not truly sanctified have the common gifts of Gods Spirit they have abilities in prayer enlargements some joyes all which are of Gods Spirit moving in them not dwelling in them And truly this is a dangerous Rock upon which many split themselves taking transient gifts of Gods Spirit for permanent graces sometimes they are hardly discerned as the Rockes that are under water But of this neccessary point more Fifthly The Spirit dwelling in us doth denote The intimatenesse and inward efficacy it hath It doth not onely dwell with us but in us which denoteth great intimatenesse Thus the Apostle often complaineth of the Law of sinne that dwelt in him Romans 7. because of the inward natural power of it that whensoever he would doe good evil was present with him It was alwayes at hand to infect and pollute So that by this is declared how powerfull and inwardly efficacious the Spirit of God is in his people Hence he is said To make intercession with groanes unutterable Romans 8.26 which could not be without a wonderfull secret and hidden deep working of the Spirit even in the depths and bottome of our souls Thus you have heard what the phrase doth imply Now let us proceed to shew How the Spirit of God dwels in his Church and afterwards Wherein his dwelling doth manifest it self For as original corruption is alwayes breaking out it 's not a dull idle sinne it 's Peccatum actuosum though not actuale So the Spirit of God is compared to fire because of the powerfull and active nature it hath in the people of God Fire doth assimulate every thing to it self Thus men filled with the holy Ghost are made exceeding spiritual endeavouring to make all like themselves Now several wayes we may consider of the Spirits dwelling in the people of God First There is an essential dwelling or a gracious dwelling by a special manifestation of more peculiar favours we doe not speak here of an essential dwelling for so the Spirit of God is every where Whither can I flie from thy presence Psal 139.7 Thus he hath the same divine Attribute as God the Father and the Sonne have Thus he filleth the whole world But we speak of his gracious presence Now how to make a difference between his essential presence and his gracious presence is impossible for men to expresse because our knowledge of God is onely apprehensive not comprehensive We see all the Schoolmen labouring to this very day to shew how an Angel is present and yet they have not waded out of those deeps Onely thus much we may in sobriety say That though the Spirit of God be every where yet he is said to be in his Church because of those peculiar and gracious operations which he produceth in them and no where else Even as God is said to be in Heaven though he be in Earth and no where else because there is a peculiar manifestation of more glory and power from him Thus then we are first to conceive of his presence But. Secondly When the Spirit of God is said to dwell in his Church it may not onely be understood of the gracious effects thereof but also of his Person likewise And this indeed I finde a very sublime and mysterious Dispute both among Papists and Protestants Whether believers are made partakers of the Person of the holy Spirit or onely of his graces According to many all those places where we are said to receive the Spirit or to be full of the holy Ghost they are extended no further than the gifts and graces of the holy Ghost But certainly many places as this in my Text are to be understood of the Person of the holy Ghost For it 's the Spirit as we shewed that is the same with God Now the gifts and graces of the Spirit are not the same with God So we are said to be a Temple of this Spirit and a Temple doth relate to a God and to a Person not to graces meerly So that we conclude that opinion to be farre more true and consonant to Scripture which makes us partakers even of the Spirit it self as we also are of Christ himselfe and not of the benefits onely that come by him But the Scripture layeth downe this in a transcendent and mystical manner and it 's by faith onely So that those who have fancied a transubstantiation into the God-head To be Christed with Christ and Godded with God or to be made the Spirit with the Spirit have thought of a physical and natural union as if a drop of water were poured into the sea where as it is onely a moral union even as the wife is made partaker not only of the husbands wealth but the husband himself yet not turned into his nature and this comparison the Scripture doth often use Lastly The Spirit of God dwels two wayes in his Church 1. In respect of wonderfull and miraculous operations 2. In respect of saving and sanctifying graces The former way the Church of Corinth was admirable you may reade 1 Cor 14. alibi of the plenty of gifts and divers operations amongst them so that they seemed herein to excell all other Churches yet in respect of the sanctifying graces they seemed to be very defective for the Apostle cals them babes and complaineth he could not speak unto them as unto spiritual so that
this later way of Gods Spirit as formerly you heard dwelling in us is most comfortable and most to be regarded though the other be more admired The former did especially belong to the Church in its first plantation Hence Acts 2. we reade of the accomplishment of that glorious Prophecy Joel 2. To pour out his Spirit c. but now these miraculous operations are ceased Vse of Instruction What Congregations and what manner of persons we ought to be To be meer men cometh farre short of being spiritual men we ought to be above sense and all humane principles Take the most refined men for morality and civility the choisest for all humane abilities yet without the Spirit of God they are no more than Adams body till life was brethed into him no more than those bones in Ezekiel till the Spirit of God gathered them together Oh that our Congregations consisted of spiritual men Paul complained He could not preach to them but as carnal The Spirit of God would lift thee up to other affections other desires As the Spirit took some mens bodies and lifted them up into the air so would it doe to the soules of men they had the Spirit of God who said Our conversation is in Heaven They had the Spirit of God that did look for the coming of Christ They had the Spirit of God who had prayed with groanes unutterable and who had joy unspeakable But oh we poor worms and not spiritual men cold clods of earth destitute of Gods Spirit And that the Spirit of God dwels in you We have heard what this inhabitation of Gods Spirit in his Church doth imply and how he may be said to dwell in us In the next place let us consider the special Workes and Effects of Gods Spirit in his Church For therefore partly hath he the name Spirit because of that power and efficacy he hath in the Church Hence he came downe in a mighty rushing winde and cloven tongues of fire So that he is called the Spirit internally and externally internally for his personall character whereby he proceeds from the Father and the Sonne Externally because of those admirable effects and demonstrations of his presence in the Church Now I shall not speak of these operations which he hath as God in creating and conservating of the world but what are more peculiar to the Church in which sense he is called The Spirit of Christ Romans 8.9 because Christ by his death did purchase such gifts and graces for his people the efficient whereof in an appropriated manner is the Spirit of God And First The very ministerial functions and abilities to discharge them are of the Holy Ghost in the Church For although Ephesians 4.11 it 's said That Christ after his Ascension and triumph over Death and Hell Gave gifts unto men Even as great Emperours when they ride in glorious triumph after a final Conquest over their enemies use to distribute large favours and many bountifull signes of honour yet because upon his Ascension he promised the Spirit of God in his absence as the divine Vicar of Christ therefore 1 Cor. 12. we find all operations and diversities of them attributed to the holy Ghost And Acts 25. the holy Ghost is said To make those overseers in the Church of Ephesus So that what Church-officers or what Church-ordinances or order we have and what Gifts and Abilities likewise there are to discharge them These are all of the holy Ghost and of the holy Ghost three wayes 1. In respect of their Institution and being For although it 's by man that such and such persons are elected and ordained to this or that Office yet the Office of it self is of the holy Ghost They are not the Institutions of men nor may men appoint some Church-officers which God hath not because their end is wholly supernatural As it 's said 2 Cor. 12.28 God hath set in his Church such Officers even as he hath set the Sunne and starres in the firmament so that all Officers lawfully called are of the holy Ghost either immediately as at the beginning or else mediately by the order and designation of the Church And as for their gifts it 's plain the extraordinary and miraculous gifts in the primitive times were from Gods Spirit The Scripture often attributeth them to it Only now it may be doubted Whether we can say that the gifts and the abilities that Ministers have now are from the holy Ghost because they are got by humane study and industry And is there any more required to understand the Scripture than any other humane Authour Plato or Aristotle Those cursed wretches Julian and Porphyrius who wrote against the Scripture they understood what they were so invective against yet it cannot be thought they were inabled by the holy Ghost Now to answer this even those natural abilities and humane indowments that men obtain by study are a gift of God they are a blessing which we see God giveth to some and not to other It 's Gods mercy thou art not a natural fool a mad man but when thou hast more understanding and better intellectual abilities than other thou hast a greater gift from God than others Hence in our very ordinary phrase we say such an one hath an excellent gift in his memory in his elocution c. And the Scripture is clear James 1.17 Every good and perfect gift cometh from the Father of lights which is to be understood universally both of naturals and supernaturals And what hast thou thou hast not received 1 Cor. 4. Hence in the Parable all abilities whether gracious or natural are called Talents and are given by one Master That is the first thing even those excellent abilities which the greatest Heretiques and enemies to the Christian Religion had were of God though the sinfull use of them came from the Devil and their own corrupt hearts They were talents of gold and they made Idols of them 2. As the gifts and abilities Church-officers have are from God so the right understanding of the Scripture and believing the sense contained therein is in a more particular manner a gift of Gods Spirit For although the Spirit of God doth not give us the sense and meaning of the Scripture in an extraordinary manner viz. without the knowledge of the tongues the comparing of places together c. yet in and by these means the Spirit of God doth help us to understand the Scripture I do not here speak of a saving knowledge of the sense of the Scripture but a meer literal knowledge of the meaning thereof This is plain by the Apostle No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Spirit 1 Cor. 12 3 The very historical believing of Scripture truths is from the Spirit of God So that here is required a more peculiar and particular assistance of Gods Spirit in ministerial abilities for the opening of the Scripture then for any humane Authour because the matter
in our hearts that our gifts may be successefull that our graces may flourish And that the Spirit of God dwels in you The first sort of the Spirits inhabitation in us viz. by Gifts hath been dispatched We now come to the more noble and excellent way which doth inseparably accompany salvation and that is the sanctifying graces of Gods Spirit By which indeed we may gather That God dwels in us For as when Daniel could so wonderfully open and interpret the Kings dreames they said The Spirit of the most high God was in him So if you see a people heavenly mortifying sinne walking in close communion with God you must needs conclude the Spirit of the most high God is in that man It 's not nature or moral virtues could raise him up to such an high Pinacle as this is And before we come to the particular effects of Gods in-dwelling after this manner it 's good to observe the Emphatical expressions that the Scripture useth equivalent to this of dwelling in us As Rom. 8. there it 's called Being in the Spirit as here The Spirit is in us So there we are in the Spirit Now that phrase is very emphatical and doth denote that all our lusts and sinnes yea our very selves are as it were swallowed up and nothing but the Spirit of God works and moveth in us To be in the Spirit denoteth the great efficacy and powerfull dominion in us as men are said to be in sinne because they no longer live but sinne nothing but sinne doth appear so it should be with the godly The Spirit of God not flesh not corruption not carnal or worldly principles should appear in them As the Prophets in the time of their Prophesie were said to be in the Spirit in an extasie minding no earthly or worldly thing Thus ought we to be emptied of our selves and filled with the Spirit of God Therefore John 3. it 's said Whatsoever is born of the Spirit is Spirit in the very abstract We have also Gal. 4 pregnant expressions To live in the Spirit to walk in the Spirit to be led by the Spirit Oh let such expressions as these make you ashamed to see so much of a man or carnal affections stirring in you What believer hath these things in the full power thereof But to the Particulars First The Spirit of God dwels in us after a saving manner in the general By way of sanctification of the Spirit soul and body even the whole man 1 Thess 5. This is the general Every man is all over unclean filthy polluted full of enmity to what is holy Now the Spirit of God that makes an universal sanctification of all these Hence by way of Office it 's called The Spirit of sanctification and the holy Spirit as Creation is appropriated to the Father and Redemption to the Sonne so Sanctification to the Holy Ghost So then as Christ in respect of his body is said to be conceived by the Holy Ghost there was a preparing and sanctifying of it for the Personal Union and the work of Redemption So the Spirit of God sanctifieth the soul of every godly man it makes every part and faculty prepared for holy Duties in an holy man for as the soul is the life of the body that can doe no vital action without it So the Spirit is the life of the soul and that can doe no spiritual action without it Oh then consider this all ye that heare and ponder it in your hearts Have you thus been conceived and borne of the Spirit of God Thy other birth will availe nothing though borne rich or noble Yea Couldst thou be borne a thousand times in a naturall way thou wouldst still be a miserable wretched man What is a good or ingenuous nature What are excellent and choice abilities if thou art not sanctified by the Spirit of God Doe not thinke these things are fancies and notions The Spirit of God may as well be called a fancy as his operations fancies But more particularly The Spirit of God dwels in a saving manner First By Illumination and opening of the darke minde of every man Every man is darknesse it selfe he cannot discerne of spiritual things revealed in the Word till the Spirit of God enlighten him Therefore the worke of Gods Spirit is great upon the minde and understanding of a man it convinceth the soul of a man of those things it never believed before John 16.9 of sinne it makes a man see the woefull and damnable estate he is in It 's so plaine that he cannot deny it he believed and judged no such thing once in him but now such light shineth in his breast that he is a very dung-hill a very hell to himself and then he convinceth of righteousnesse viz. a Gospel-righteousnesse by Christ Now all his workes all his good duties are dung and drosse all that Religion he put confidence in is abandoned by him the Spirit of God convinceth him of a glorious righteousnesse without him which onely is able to cover his nakednesse Againe Another special worke on the understanding is To teach to guide and leade into all truth We cannot say Jesus is the Christ without the Spirit as you heard 1 Corinth 12.3 Spiritual things must have a spirituall ability to discerne them It 's true he leadeth in and by the use of meanes appointed but yet he onely doth efficiently dispell the darknesse and worke faith to holy Truths So then we see it 's the speciall worke of Gods Spirit not humane ability to be directed into truth And we must not onely study Books but pray to God and take heed of such sinnes which may drive Gods Spirit from us for then we are as a wilde horse without a rider like a ship in the midst of the sea without a Pilot. Secondly The Spirit of God quickens and reviveth those graces that by Regeneration were infused to us compared therefore to the winde as the blowing of that makes the flowers of the Gardens to send forth their sweet smels So it 's here It 's not enough to have the habit and principles of grace within us but we need a fervent and vigorous actuating of them And therefore is the Holy Ghost compared to fire and hence that phrase To be filled with the Holy Ghost which is applied to the godly sometimes doth as learned men observe denote some actual and vigorous impression upon their hearts Their graces were now put forth in a lively vigorous way Oh this is a blessed life when a Christian is constantly filled with the Holy Ghost that doth actually make his heart fervent and burning in all its duties towards God! If this were the life of the godly man there would not be such complaints such feares such doubts Oh they cannot tell what to say to themselves They are dull heavy earthly Alas all this is because the Spirit of God filleth not thy heart if this were working thou wouldst be like Ezekiels wheeles that