he will grant the Holy Ghost to be God because speaking of the joynt Testimony of the three together the Apostle calls it the Testimony of God ver 9. If we receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater So that the witness of Father Son and Holy Ghost is the Testimony of God and it is the Testimony of three which are one and the same God One in Essence and in Nature And whereas it is still further argued upon this ground viz. That our Saviour Joh. 17.11 prayes unto his Father that they the Disciples may be one as we are one and this doth imply a unity or oneness in consent and agreement only but it doth not imply a union or oneness in Essence because Christ did not pray that they who believe in him should be one in the same Essence Christ could not pray that the Apostles should be one as they namely Christ and his Father were for it was impossible that they that believe in Christ should be one in Nature and in Essence and distinct only in Person To this the Answer is When Chirst laid this injunction upon his Disciples Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect Mat. 5.48 He did not intend to lay any such command upon them as this namely to be infinitely perfect as God is but that they should advance towards perfection and that he should be their Pattern that they should be as perfect for men as he is for God So when Christ would lay a Pattern before his Father how he would desire that those who do believe should be intirely one and most absolutely knit together as pefect in unity as could be imagined he I say prescribes the most perfect and absolute Pattern of Unity But he doth not imply as if therefore the Disciples or they that believe in him should be one after the same manner that Christ and his Father were one but he prayes that they might be all one that is that God would so deal with the hearts of Believers and so direct them by his Spirit and that he would provoke and stir them up according unto his interest untill they did attain unto and grow up in the most absolute perfection of union and agreement that possibly might be attained unto that they might be of one heart and of one soul as it is said of the Christians in the Acts And in this God doth hear the Prayer of Christ and doth perform it as far as his interest is concerned in it There is another interpretation that might be given of the place that is far more probable and better prepared for the understandings and apprehensions of men by far than that which our Adversary pretendeth as namely that God would make them one as He and his Father is one that is that he would bring his Saints to be one in Consent to be one in the same Truth But doubtless our Saviours Prayer reached further than to a simple consent In a word the meaning of the place is by some conceived to be this in effect and it is a very good interpretation That God the Father would grant unto those who do believe in Christ that they might believe more and more For as he that believeth more in Christ hath a more and greater unity in him than he that believeth less as a thing may cleave closer or faster to a thing and where the thing cleaves faster there is a greater union just so the meaning of the place seems to these to be That God would prevail with his Saints and those that believe in Jesus Christ that they would strive to get further and further closer and closer and more and more united to him that so they might be absolutely one as much as possible might be and withal that one Saint might fortifie and strengthen another more and more and that Jesus Christ who is the stem and stock to whom all the branches were fastened that he might have so much the more honour and glory by having his body reduced into one and so to have it more absolutely compleat The last Scripture we shall insist upon assertively to prove the Holy Ghost to be God shall be Isa 6.2 3. compared with some others Sect. 15 Above stood the Scraphims each one had six wings c. And one cried unto another and said Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory or according to the Hebrew reading in the Margent his glory is fulness of the whole earth Here it is evident that the Angels worshipped the Lord of Hosts and we need not question but that the holy Angels did very well know and understand whom they worshipped and that they were not like the Samaritans who according to our Saviours Testimony concerning them worshipped they knew not what Joh. 4.22 Go we forward to ver 8. Also I heard saith the Prophet here the voice of the Lord meaning the Lord of Hosts whom the Angels worshipped saying whom shall I send and who will go for us Where obiter we may observe a plain intimation of the three persons at least a plurality of persons in the unity of the Divine Essence Whom shall I send and who will go for us In the former Clause where we have a Verb of the Singular number the unity of the Godhead or Divine Essence is signified In the latter where we have a Pronoune of the Plural number the Plurality of Persons subsisting in this Essence But to pass this by the Prophet to this demand of the Lord of Hosts returneth this answer as himself reporteth Here am I send me upon this the Lord said to him go and tell this people Here ye indeed but understand not make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes c. So that comparing these passages together it is evident 1. That he whom the Angels worshipped was the Lord of Hosts and consequently the true yea the most high God And 2. That it was the same Lord of Hosts or the most High God who put the words mentioned into the mouth of the Prophet saying to him Go tell this people c. Now that he that put the words of this Prophesie into the mouth of Isaiah was the Holy Ghost and consequently that the Holy Ghost is the Lord of Hosts and he that was worshipped by the Angels is as evident as evidence it self can make it and this by the unquestionable Testimony of the Apostle Paul Acts 28.25 26. And when they agreed not among themselves they departed after that Paul had spoken one word Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the Prophet unto our Fathers saying Go unto this people and say Hearing ye shall hear and not understand and seeing ye shall see and not perceive For the heart of this people is waxed gross c. What can be more plain than that he who was worshipped by the Seraphims and
in the Antecedent of the Proposition be supposed to signifie either something or nothing either that which is or that which is not yet it doth not follow that it should be determinately either something or nothing from hence because it is distinct from the Essence of God so that the Major Proposition in this Syllogism vanisheth into a meer Nothing Thirdly Whereas in the process of his Argument he reasoneth thus If finite meaning if a Person be finite then there will be something finite in God if infinite then there will be two infinites in God the Person and the Essence both which he presumeth are accounted absurd by his Adversaries themselves We reply First that whatsoever his Adversaries do in the case he himself holdeth not only that there is something finite in God but that all things appertaining to him are finite For holding the Essence of God to be finite and locally circumscribed he must consequently hold and maintain that all other things belonging to his Essence are finite and circumscribed also so that it is no absurdity with him to grant that there is something finite in God But he that granteth Passions also properly and formally so called in God as Anger Grief Sorrow and consequently an obnoxiousness or an exposedness unto Trouble Pain Torment yea and death it self for all this directly followeth upon such a Tenent it is no marvel if he holds all things finite in God But secondly I reply further that it no way follows that if a person be infinite and the Essence infinite that there should be two infinites in God The Reason is plain because the Person and the Essence are not two things really distinct the one from the other but in consideration only That is a common and true Saying amongst Divines In Trinitate omnia sunt unum ubi non obviat relationis oppositio All things in the Trinity are one excepting only where the opposition of relation cometh in the way viz. The Father is not the Son nor the Son the Father nor the Holy Ghost either nor either the Holy Ghost yet they are all one and the same Essence and consequently one and the same Infinite yet doth it not follow that because there are more persons or a plurality of persons that therefore there is a plurality or more than one Essence for it is the Essence to which properly or primarily the Attributes do belong and not the Persons I beseech you mind this Rule which will give a great light into this deep Mystery It is the Essence to which properly and primarily the Attributes do belong and not the person they do belong indeed to the person but only in consideration of the Essence whereof each Person partakes As for instance the Father is not infinite and so is not Omniscient and Omnipresent because he is the Father but because he is God i.e. because he partakes and subsists in the Divine Essence So likewise the Second Person the Son is not therefore infinite because he is a Person or because he is the Son but because he is God i. e. one and the same really with the Divine Essence there is the same reason of the Holy Ghost So that though the Father be infinite and the Son infinite and the Holy Ghost infinite and the Divine Essence infinite yet it doth not follow that there should be three infinites or any more than one because the Essence is but one to which the Attribute of Infinity belongeth And the Persons as they partake of the Divine Essence which is but one so they partake of the Infinity belonging to this Essence which is but one neither As it may be truly said that Sarahs Husband had a great Estate and Isaac's Father had a great Estate and the Father of the Faithful had a great Estate yet it will not follow that therefore here were three great Estates the Reason is because all the Relations were really founded in one and the self-same person called Abraham and the Estate did not belong to him either as he was Sarahs Husband or Isaac's Father or the Father of the Faithful but as he was such a person enriched by God I might shew you further how the divine Attributes as we call them are founded not in the Person but in the Essence But this sufficeth for reply to the second Reason against the distinction of God taken Essentially and Personally Thirdly and lastly The last Reason against the distinction of God taken Personally and Essentially take it in his own words Sect. 7 Thirdly to talk of God taken only Essentially is ridiculous not only because there is no Example thereof in the Scripture but because God is the name of a Person and signifieth him that ruleth over others and when it is put for the most High God it denoteth him who with soveraign and absolute Authority ruleth over all But none but a Person can rule over others all actions being proper to persons wherefore to take God otherwise than Personally is to take him otherwise than he is and indeed to mistake him To this also we reply First When he saith That to talk of God taken only Essentially is ridiculous how ridiculously himself speaketh hath been formerly shewed in part and will further appear when we shall weigh the grounds of his windy confidence in the balance of the Sanctuary For first Whereas he saith There is no example in the Scripture this saying of his hath already been weighed and found too light Secondly When he saith That God is the name of a Person and when it is put for the most High God it denoteth him who with soveraign Authority ruleth over all c. We reply by denying that God is alwaies the name of a Person For when we say that the Father is God and again that the Son is God the word God is not the name of a Person nor doth it signifie a Person as such But rather the Divine Nature and Essence wherein both the Father and the Son equally partake according to our sense and the truth it self And in the sense of our Adversarie who denieth the Son to be the same God with the Father yet granteth him to be God it must needs signifie or denote some property priviledge or the like wherein they both partake For certainly the Son can in no sense whatsoever be termed God unless there be same Agreement Similitude or Partnership in something or other with him that is God indeed or as our Adversaries love to speak the most High God so that when according to the same sense of our Adversaries the Son is called God the word God doth not denote the proper name of a person but denoteth and is a word importing something that is common to more persons than one Thirdly and lastly When he saith That when it is put for the most High God it signifieth him that with soveraign Authority ruleth over all and addeth That all Actions are proper unto persons c. We
Holy Ghost may be said to receive that which is Christs which is so far from impairing his Divinity or Godhead that it fully asserts and confirms it But this being somewhat mysterious and requiring some larger Explication we shall not at present dive into it that which hath been given is more obvious and agreeable to the words and scope of the place and sufficient to detect the vanity of the Argument built upon it in opposition to the Deity or Godhead of the Holy Ghost And this for the fifth Argument The sixth Argument riseth thus He that is sent by another is not God Sect. 12 the Holy Spirit is sent by another therefore He is not God The Minor is proved from Joh. 16.26 The Major he that ministreth is not God this is the whole compass of the sixth Argument The substance and strength of this Argument is That to be sent forth by another to minister and to receive commands are things incompatible to the Soveraign Majesty of God and that these are in Scripture affirmed of the Holy Ghost therefore he cannot be God To this we reply First That the man being a perfect Anthropomorphite notioning and conceiving that all those things which are attributed unto God in the Scriptures after the manner of men as bodily members humane passions a circumscriptiveness unto place c. are in the litteral and proper nature and formality of them to be found in him builds his Arguments upon this sandy and rotten foundation And because it is so with men that he that is sent or sent forth by another is inferiour to him that sends him though this be not alwaies so neither as we shall see presently he therefore conceiveth that when these things are spoken of Christ or of the Holy Ghost they must be understood litterally and formally of them also whereas if we do but own and acknowledge the infinity and incomprehensibleness of God we must of necessity admit of and own that Rule delivered long since by Austin and the ancient Fathers and ever and anon remembred by all learned men that have written of these things Quando humana transferuntur ad Deum c. When things properly belonging unto men are transferred over unto God they are to be understood so that no dishonour nor disparagement be offered unto the Divine Nature and whatsoever in them imports imperfection is to be separated and left behind and only that to be conceived to be meant of God which implieth perfection for whatsoever proceeds from God so far as it cometh from him hath no imperfection in it therefore nothing which includes imperfection in it so far as it includes it can be with truth attributed unto him Secondly When the Holy Ghost and there is the same consideration of the Son in this respect is in Scripture said to be sent whether by the Son as Joh. 16.26 or by the Father as Joh. 14.26 it doth not imply either subjection or inferiority to either of the Persons sending because subjection savoureth of imperfection Nor secondly doth it imply any removal from place to place for this also savoureth of Creature-like imperfection not to be present every where at once Nor thirdly doth it imply Ministery or Service properly so called i. e. The doing of any thing in the fruit and benefit whereof he that is sent hath not an equal interest or share with him that sendeth him For this also implies some kind of imperfection If you ask me What then doth it imply I answer first It implies the plurality of beings or subsistencies which we call persons in the Divine Essence for the sender and he that is sent must needs be more than one Secondly It implies another thing as namely the order of the persons between themselves For he that is sent must in order though not in nature or dignity be after him that sendeth Though there be not a superiority and inferiority one to command and another to be subject Yet notwithstanding there is an order amongst them and the order is this the Father is as the Schoolmens Expression frequently is Fons Deitatis the Fountain of the Godhead because the Son though he doth partake of the same Divine Nature and Essence with him and is every way God with him yet he hath the Sonship or Divine Person communicated unto him by God the Father So the third Person hath a divine Nature and Essence communicated unto him by a joynt spiration as they express it or by way of Procession he hath it joyntly from the Father and the Son And hence it is that you never find in Scripture that the Father is said to be sent either by the Son or by the Holy Ghost But you find concerning both the Son and the Holy Spirit sometimes the Son is said to be sent into the World by the Father and so the Spirit is said to be sent This therefore sheweth indeed the Plurality of Persons in the Divine Essence and so likewise the order of subsistence between them that there is one as it were before who hath a priority of order though not of excellency or dignity nor of greatness nor any such thing And then again that which I suppose is the principle thing meant by it viz. the Phrase of sending is that the work mode or manner of working which is proper for the Holy Ghost that this is to be performed by him according to the order that we lately shewed First the Father then the Son then the Holy Ghost So that now every one of these though as indeed they have one and the same Essence and Nature so they alwaies joyn in one and the same operation and working ad extra without yet notwithstanding they have every one of them a peculiar and an appropriate and distinct manner of working answerable to that order wherein they subsist among themselves As for example The Father beginneth the work which is proper for the Original Author of the Work and then the Son he doth something but in a mediate kind of way between the beginning and consummation or finishing of it and the Holy Ghost according to his place in his order being the third and last He worketh after the manner of him that perfecteth or finisheth or consummates the work The Father he hath laid the Counsel and Platform of Salvation for men The Son he hath carried on the work so far as to make the attonement for them And yet there remaineth something to be done for the Salvation of the World and that is the reducing and bringing men to believe in this Saviour and to accept of that Attonement which he hath made for them and this being the consummating work about the salvation of the World although the Father and the Son both have a hand in it and it is doubtless their work as well as his yet the manner of the accomplishing of it concluding wise this is appropriate unto the Holy Spirit And now because his work importeth such a thing
nature as to be tempted of the Devil to combate with his greatest and most potent Enemy Masters are not wont to be led or acted by their Servants especially such Masters who are prudent and wise into undertakings of a difficult nature 4. and lastly If we look throughout the Scriptures we shall not find any Angel that ever appeared unto men in any other form likeness or shape of any other Creature but only of a man whereas we read of appearances of God himself in the forms of several other Creatures besides men He appears in a cloud of fire upon mount Sinal Exo. 24.16 17. So again in a cloud to the seventy Elders Num. 11.25 As for the Angel which is said to have appeared unto Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush Exod. 3.2 and so Acts 7.30 It is evident from the fourth verse of that Chapter Exod. 3. and so from Mat. 22.31 32. that it was not a created Angel but he that is elsewhere called the Angel of the Covenant the Angel of the face and presence of God Christ himself who is called an Angel very frequently as Calvin and others the best and soundest of Interpreters teach and prove Evident it is that the Counsel and intent of God the Father in sending down the Holy Ghost from heaven in that bodily shape we heard upon his Son Jesus Christ was for the publick and solemn inauguration of him into his Prophetical Office the Great Office of preaching and publishing the Gospel unto the World This appears from that voice which was heard from Heaven which was an Interpreter of the whole Transaction This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him So then God the Father and God the Holy Ghost did together inaugurate solemnly invest Jesus Christ into his Great Prophetical Office wherein from henceforth he was to minister unto the World and immediately upon this inauguration he began to execute it That which the Father acted in the business was in that audible voice that came from Heaven That which the Holy Ghost did was by that visible appearance and lighting on him like a Dove So that the interposure or action of the one and of the other were much alike the one had little or no preheminence above the other Now it being the proper Interest of God alone and not appertaining to the Creature to raise up and send Prophets one or other certainly it was not proper for any Creature whatsoever to have a hand in the sending that Prophet of Prophets that Prophet of the World Jesus Christ A second place from the New Testament shall be that of our Saviour himself Mat. 28.19 Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Sect. 5 baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Concerning this place I suppose these two things 1. It is spoken of that Baptism which is unto Remission of sins i. e. which was given and appointed by God to secure or seal unto men the forgiveness of their sins upon their repentance whether they have already repented or no. 2. That He into whose name any person is baptized with such a Baptism as this a Baptism of this import must be in a capacity of forgiving sins upon repentance These two things supposed I argue thus If the Holy Ghost be such a Person in whose Name together with the Name of the Father and of the Son it is meet for men to be baptized then is He truly God But such a person He is c. This latter Proposition is unquestionable from the words of the Scripture before us For doubtless the Lord Christ would not have commanded his Apostles to baptize in his Name were he not a Person meet in whose NameBaptism should be administred The other Proposition cannot reasonably be denied neither because He in whose Name it is any waies meet for a person to be baptized for the Remission of sins upon Repentance must in reason be in a full capacity to give such a Remission and this not Ministerially or declaratively only For then Paul might lawfully have baptized in his own name yea every Minister of the Gospel may baptize in their own names for in this sense they are said to remit or forgive sins Joh. 20.23 Mat. 18.18 but Originally and Authoritatively For questionless it is the appropriate Priviledge or Prerogative of God thus to forgive sins it being He against whom all sin is committed and to whom men become debtors by sinning And as there is no reason or equity in it that one man should have power to forgive another man's debt especially that the Inferiour should have power to remit that which is due to the Superiour So is there much less reason to conceive that any meer Creature whatsoever hath power to forgive another Creature what it oweth unto God Upon this account it was that when Christ said to the sick of the Palsie Son thy fins be forgiven thee the Scribes and Pharisees not believing him to be God were startled at it and demanded Why doth this man speak blasphemies who can forgive sins but God alone Mar. 2.7 And the Lord Christ to justifie himself against the horrid imputation of blasphemy doth not contradict their sense in making it blaspemy for any but God to undertake to forgive sins Nor yet pleads that he had a special Warrant or Commission from God to forgive sins where he pleased but only vindicates his Godhead saying to him that was sick with Authority in his own Name Arise take up thy bed and walk and demanding of those who charged him with blasphemy Whether it is easier to say to the sick of the Palsie Thy sins are fergiven thee or to say Arise take up thy bed and walk Meaning that they could not but well enough understand and conceive that he that could say the latter with authority and effect could be no less than God and consequently might say the former without contracting the sin of blasphemy Besides it is altogether irrational to conceive that He that charged the Jews not to plow with an Oxe and an Ass together nor to wear a Garment made of Linnen and Wollen should couple the Name of an infinite and incomprehensible God and the name of a mear finite Creature together to make one and the same Name in or into which the Creatures are to be baptized For it is not here said Names but Name Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost which likewise implies that all the three here mentioned have but one and the same Name i.e. one and the same power and authority amongst them A third place from the New Testament Sect. 6 which clearly evinceth the Holy Ghost to be God is extant Joh. 3.5 Jesus answered verily verily I say unto you Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God The worke of Regeneration
thorough some part of his Dominion makes his abode in some Country Town and whilst he stayeth in it much enricheth and graceth it but upon some offense given unto him by the Inhabitants leaves them and returns to his principal or chief City where the standing place of his residence is These things I presume are no new or strange things unto the most of you And the truth is that to frame an Argument against the Deity or Godhead of the Holy Ghost from the expressions of his descent argues no depth of insight in the Scriptures nor great acquaintedness with their Dialect From that which hath been said a ready Reply may be shaped to the other the Minor Proposition in the Argument This Proposition was That to descend or remove from place to place is in that third of Matthew ascribed unto the Holy Ghost The Reply is That such a descent which hath been described and avouched as competent unto God and is frequently ascribed unto him in the Scriptures is indeed attributed unto him But as for any other descent and particularly such as is appropriate unto the Creature it neither hath been nor ever will be proved to be either here or any where else ascribed unto him Concerning the second place Mat. 28.19 Go teach all Nations baptizing them c. and what was argued for the Divinity of the Holy Ghost from hence our Adversaries it seems know not how to evade the manifest conviction hereof but by denying that which I suppose all the Christian World besides themselves do and ever did grant viz. that the Baptizing which our Saviour enjoyneth his Disciples to administer together with their Preaching of the Gospel is the baptizing with water so much spoken of in the New Teftament what account or reason they give of this their denial I understand not but certainly the strongest and most demonstrative reason that the judgments and understanding of men are capable of had need be given to justifie or bear men out in the denial of that which the whole World in a manner of the religious grave and learned in the mysteries of Christian Religion do affirm But not to burthen our Adversaries with the bare Authority of the whole Christian World this being a burthen of that weight that it ought to shake any man's judgment and conscience where it lies and cause them to look about but waving this I say at present I would gladly understand from them some tolerable reason at least why that baptizing which is here spoken of should not be that baptizing which the Gospel describeth to be the Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of sins Or what other Baptism than that of water for the Remission of fins can reasonably be imagined that the Lord Christ should enjoyn the Administration of unto his Disciples That Baptism which is with the Holy Ghost and with fire is appropriate unto Christ himself and immediately administrable by him only as all the Evangelists testifie Mat. 3.11 Mar. 1.8 Luke 3.16 Jeh 1.26 Therefore this was not the Baptism here prescribed As for that which some call Baptisma Sanguinis the Baptism of Martyrdom or Affliction even that Baptism which our Saviour mentions to the Sons of Zebedeus Mat. 20.22 23. Are ye able to be baptized with the Baptism that I am baptized with c. Meaning hereby could they drink of such a Cup as he was ready to drink of The Baptism here spoken of cannot in any tolerable sense be conceived to be meant of that Baptism which Christ commanded his Apostles For certainly Christ did not command them to make Martyrs where they came nor to subdue them by bloud they might teach men indeed to suffer persecution and animate and instruct them that way but who can reasonably judge or conceive that such a thing as this should be intended in such a Phrase as this Go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father c. Besides the very name into which they baptized men maketh it fully to appear that it was not any such kind of Baptism and therefore if our Adversaries can invent or devise or find out in the Scriptures any other Baptism than that we speak of which is likely that the Lord Christ should commit to his Disciples to administer in the World where they went to teach the Gospel then their Exception may have some colour or shew in it But in the mean season there being that Baptism of water which is every where urged and imposed upon persons upon their believing and which was administred to all those that came to desire it of John and this being the most famous Baptism and such a kind of Action which was very proper for the Apostles Ministry or at least to proffer the ministration of it where they preached the Gospel therefore in the eyes of all considering men it must needs be that Baptism which is called the Baptism of Repentance for the remission of sins Mar. 1.4 And if so then the Holy Ghost in whose name this Baptism is to be administied is without all question and dispute truly God But It seems there is another evasion or shift by which the Adversary thinks to convey himself out of the dint of this Scripture before us viz. That where the Apostles are enjoyned to baptize in the name of the Holy Ghost the meaning saith he is to baptize men into the guidance and ducture of the Holy Ghost Not as if the Holy Ghost and the Father were one And they seem in their own eyes to give much strength to this Evasion by comparing it with 1 Cor. 10.2 where all the Fathers the Israelites are said to be baptized unto Moses It is clear say they that being baptized unto or into Moses here is nothing else meant but a being baptized in Moses his conduct and guidance And so say they to be baptized into the Holy Ghost or in the Holy Ghost doth not signifie any thing more than being baptized into the Holy Ghost so as to follow and give up our selves unto the Holy Ghost for our Teacher and director For Answer hereunto First by way of Concession It is very true that here is somewhat of the Baptism here spoken of somewhat of that nature namely an engagement and obligement upon the persons who are thus baptized to give up themselves unto the guidance of the Holy Ghost But secondly by way of Exception 1. That which is somewhat more in this Baptism is That they be baptized into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost for the Remission of sins Now this is the intent of the message of Baptism viz. That upon their Repentance their sins are forgiven them or in case they have repented their sins shall be forgiven This is the mind and counsel of God in Baptism But then in the second place it followeth That those persons that have been baptized upon their Repentance are enjoyned by way of consequence to deliver up themselves into
is termed the Lord of Hosts by Isaiah is by the Apostle Paul's interpretation the Holy Ghost And if he was worshipped by the Angels certainly he was no Angel no created Angel himself but truly God Neither can our Adversaries take Sanctuary under the wing of their common Evasion viz. by pretending that it might be the Lord of Hosts or the most High God that put the words specified into the mouth of Isaiah and yet do it too by an Angel For 1. here is no ground at all no touch or breathing of any circumstance to build such a conceit or pretense upon 2. That which the Lord of Hosts did unto Isaiah by the Ministery of an Angel in his Vision is expresly ascribed to the Angel who did minister unto him in this kind Isa 6.6 7. Then flew one of the Seraphims unto me having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with the tongs from off the Altar and he laid it upon my mouth and said Lo this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged What God did by an Angel unto Isaiah is as we hear expresly attributed to the Angel that did it And if it had been an Angel that by order and Commission from God dictated that Prophesie unto Isaiah which here he is commanded to utter unto the People why should not this have been mentioned and the act of dictation we speak of ascribed unto the Angel as well as that other Especially considering that the Angel which is pretended to have been ministerial unto God in the latter I mean in suggesting the words of the Prophesie unto the Prophet is supposed to be an Angel of far greater worth and dignity than the other for such the Holy Ghost is supposed to be by our Adversaries viz. the supreme Angel in dignity Now it is no waies reasonable to suppose that the Act of an inferiour Agent or Instrument should be recorded and the act of a far greater Instrument in and about the same business should be buried in silence Nay 3. And lastly for this the Prophet Isaiah is expresly said ver 11. to have called him Lord who had said unto him Go tell this people c. Then said I Lord how long If men had though but a competent anoynting with that wisdom which is from above as James speaketh Jam. 3.17 and so were made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 easie to be perswaded indeed possible to be perswaded by the truth or to the truth these things might satisfie and perswade them For what greater proof or argument can there be to evince the Holy Ghost to be truly God or God by Nature as the Apostle distinguisheth than that he should be worshipped or adored by the Angels who very well know to whom worship belongeth Yea as Christ the Son of God is directly prayed unto by Stephen Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit and again by John Rev. 22.20 Even so come Lord Jesus So is the Holy Ghost by the Church or Spouse of Christ Cant. 4.16 Awake thou North wind and come thou South blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out q.d. O Spirit of God breath upon my heart and soul be thou operative by thy grace and power upon me that so my Graces my holy Dispositions and Affections may freely utter themselves in the World with sutable actions and deportments Some I know understand this as if it were rather spoken by Christ to the Holy Ghost in reference to his Church whom they conceive he calleth his Garden than by the Spouse in respect of her self but the words in the latter end of the verse seem to evince the contrary for they must needs be understood as spoken by the Spouse Let my Beloved come into his Garden and eat his pleasant fruits Here she styles her self his Garden because of the pleasure and delight she knew he took in her and invites him into his Garden to eat his pleasant fruits i. e. Desires him to take contentment in her Graces and Services We heard not long since that the Spirit of God is in the Scriptures resembled by the wind and why Yet more plainly than this Sect. 16 John prays for mercy and peace for the seven Churches of Asia not only from God the Father and from Jesus Christ but also from the Holy Ghost Rev. 1.4 signified by the seven Spirits before the Throne of the Father for the multiplicity of his distributions and gifts given unto men And here it may be noted that the Holy Ghost is not only joyned together with the Father and the Son by John as with them constituting one and the same object of Divine Worship but is likewise mentioned out of the order wherein they are more usually named when all three are mentioned together viz. not in the last place but in the middle between the Father and the Son which is I suppose occasioned from hence because John had more to say in the immediate sequel of the Context concerning Christ and therefore according to the usual manner of the Scriptures in like case reserved the last place in the enumeration for him though his proper place were before If any man shall here object and say That John doth not properly or directly pray in the passage mentioned to the Holy Ghost no nor yet to the Father or the Son but only wisheth Grace and Peace unto the seven Churches from them joyntly To this I answer 1. If it be conceived that John only wisheth or desireth Grace and Peace unto the Churches yet it is plain that he wisheth them equally and indifferently from the Spirit of God as well as from the Father and the Son therefore he supposeth him to be a joynt Donour with the other two of these Blessings Doubtless he would not have wished or desired them from one that had no power or right of interest to confer them and if the Holy Ghost hath power to confer them what can either God the Father or the Son have more If it be said God the Father may have an original power and the Holy Ghost a derivative or communicated power only I reply 1. Here as not the least intimation of any such difference between the power of the one and of the other in the sense at least of him that objecteth For there is a sense indeed wherein it may be admitted without any prejudice to the Deity of the Holy Ghost that he hath only a derived or communicated right or power to give Grace and Peace and the Father alone the power Original in this kind As his Personality or Subsistence in the Divine Nature or Essence is communicated unto him by and from the Father together with the Son so may all Rights and Powers belonging hereunto and founded in such a Subsistence be said to be derived and communicated unto him also But as he partakes of or subsists in the same Divine Essence with the Father and the Son so his Right
upon a mistake of the Scriptures and ignorance of the true nature of God First To prove that the Holy Ghost is not truly God they argue thus He that is distinguished from God is not God but the Holy Ghost is distinguished from God therefore he is not God To both these Propositions in order I reply first to the former and then to the latter To the Major or former Proposition I reply by distinguishing or explaining it there being a sense whereof the words are capable wherein it is to be admitted and a sense also wherein it is to be denied and so it is an ambiguous Proposition and of an uncertain signification Therefore when this Proposition saith He that is distinguished from God is not God If his meaning be this that he that is distinguished in Nature and Essence from God is not God the Proposition is most true for that which is â—inite cannot be infinite that which is Created and partaketh not of the increated Nature and Essence of God cannot be God But in this sense of the word distinguished from God the Minor is false for the Holy Spirit is not thus distinguished from God viz. in Essence and Nature as we have formerly proved Secondly The said Proposition that which is distinguished from God is not God may be understood in this sense That that Person who is distinguished from another person who is truly and really God is not God but in this sense it is false and neither is nor can be proved by the Proposers of it For such a person who is distinguished from another person who is God may be God likewise yea the same God with him though not the same person Otherwise it would follow that because the Lord Jesus Christ is often distinguished in the Scriptures from the person of God the Father as when he is called the Son of God and so when it is said that God sent him with the like and also where he is called Jesus it would follow I say that he should be truly God no more than the Spirit or Holy Ghost for these and many such like expressions in the Scriptures import a manifest distinction between him and God the Father Nor doth it therefore prove that because the Son is distinct from the Father that he is not God yea as the Scripture frequently distinguisheth between God and the Father therefore if the Proposition before us were true in the latter sense it would follow that neither should the Father be God because as I say the Scriptures distinguish him from God as Rom. 15.6 God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ You have the same expression 2 Cor. 1.3 So also Ephes 1.3 Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ So likewise Eph. 5.20 Unto God and the Father to omit others But the Author and Avoucher of the Argument now in hand cryeth ouâ— upon that distinction which is made between the Essence and Person of God terming it a wretched distinction and an ignorant refuge What he meaneth by a wretched distinction I do not well know or understand if he therefore termeth it wretched because it is poor and destitute of means or friends to support it he had small reason so to defame it For certain it is that it hath both means and Friends in abundance to support it it hath the whole glory in a manner of all the chief and choice Gifts Parts Wisdom Learning that hath been found in the Christian World from the daies of the Apostles untill now to stand by it and maintain it which have ministred Arguments and Proofs very bountifully unto it for its defense therefore in this sense it is not it cannot be wretched upon the same account he had small reason to call it an ignorant refuge That which had all the Wisdom Knowledge and Learning well nigh of all the Christian World to erect and build it cannot reasonably be suspected for an ignorant refuge If he calleth it a wretched distinction because it is the object of his hatred and he meant so to handle it so to bruise batter and deface it by bending the force of his Wit and Learning against it that hereby it should become desolate and miserable his spirit of Prophesie hath failed him at this point For the distinction is at this day notwithstanding all the contempt he hath poured upon it all that he hath done to misfigure it it is in as much honour and esteem with sober learned and understanding men as before yea his ignorant Zeal to dishonour and disparage it hath provoked the learned zeal of many to maintain it yea and to add more beauty and strength unto it But leaving his swelling words of vanity against this distinction let us hear and consider what his more sober and express Arguments or Reasons are against it First he saith That it is unheard of in Scriptures and so to be rejected it being presumption to affirm any thing of the unsearchable Nature of God which he hath not first affirmed of himself in the Scriptures these are his own words By the way before we come to reply to this Reason it is not unworthy observation how directly he treadeth in the steps of those who have a mind to oppose that which they fear they cannot solidly and substantially confute or overthrow For whereas those men whom he would be thought to oppose in his Doctrine against the Godhead of the Holy Ghost are wont to distinguish between God taken Personally and Essentially he represents them as if they distinguished between the Essence and Person of God which distinction is of a much differing import from the former I do not remember any learned man that ever asserted a distinction a real distinction of which our Adversaries seem to speak between the Essence of God and the Person of God as if the Essence or Nature of God were one thing and the Person of God or any Person in the Godhead another thing differing really from it yet the distinction of God taken Essentially and Personally is frequent amongst those who write about the Trinity How the word God may be taken sometimes Essentially and otherwhile Personally without supposing any real difference between the Essence of God and a Person in the Godhead may be shewed in due time or however may appear by what God shall enable us to speak upon the subject matter in hand But to the Reason or Argument propounded against the distinction of God taken Personally and Essentially viz. it is unheard of in the Scriptures I reply first that if he meaneth that these words Personally and Essentially are not literally or formally found in the Scriptures in this sense the truth of his Argument is granted But the pertinency and strength of it in point of proof of that which he infers from it viz. that therefore it is to be rejected is denied For it doth not follow that every distinction the terms whereof are not in expressness of words
distinguished because we cannot conceive the particular manner how they are or may be distinguished Take another Instance of a thing oft supposed in the Scriptures and which is though in another kind very Fundamental too to Christian Religion at least to our embracing and professing of it The reasonable soul of a man is united unto the body and so the body is united likewise unto the Soul so as to make one and the same man or person This the Scripture supposeth in twenty places and ten we shall not need to cite any for the proof of it But who is there that is able distinctly to conceive or shape in his mind how or after what manner by what Ligament or bonds the Soul is united and knit unto the Body and the Body to it Or how or by what vertue or property inherent in the Soul it should enliven strengthen or give motion unto the Body To omit many particulars more relating to the state and condition of the Soul and Body in their union The things themselves being certain though the distinct manner of them or of their being be inscrutable unto men will a man charge him with deluding himself and others with empty terms and words without understanding who himself believeth and would have others believe also that the reasonable soul in natural union or conjunction with an humane body maketh one and the same intire man or person of man only because he cannot distinctly conceive the manner how such a thing should be Will a man go about to perswade himself that he is not a man Surely no all the Philosophers in the World and all the Learned men who have called up all their Learning and Principles to enquire about it were never able to reach the manner how such a thing should be We know not as Solomon informeth us Eccles 11.5 what is the way of the Spirit or how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with Child Shall we therefore deny that there is any such thing as the growing of a Child in the womb of her that bears it because no man knoweth how they do grow It is not a more common than true saying That many effects are visible and certain the reason or causes whereof are hid from men as the flowing and ebbing of the Sea that is a famous instance and the saltness of the water the Spots in the Moon the pointing of the Loadstone towards the North with many the like in Nature And if the Reasons and Causes of things be so hard to be come at so inaccessible to the Capacities and Understandings of men How much more are the modes the respective manner of the beings and subsistings of things these being many degrees more subtil and farther remote from the Understandings of men than the Causes and Reasons of the other And if the modi the intrinsical manner as the Schoolmen term them of created beings and their subsisting be so difficult to be conceived and understood it needeth not seem strange to us that the manner of the infinite and increated being which we call God and of his subsisting should be so far above our Apprehensions and capacities So that to put men upon endeavouring to conceive in their minds the particular manner how every thing should be or may be which the Scriptures only affirm to be and in case they cannot thus conceive of them to perswade them to deny their beings is in effect to perswade and bear them in hand that if they cannot he wise above that which is written they had as good throw up or cast aside that wich is written as vanity and untruth Most true it is that we ought not to believe any thing in matters of Religion but what we have a sufficient and substantial ground in Reason why we should believe it i. e. unless we have the Word of God for it which is the most substantial ground in Reason of all others why a thing should be believed But the Word of God revealeth many things simply to be the distinct manner of the being whereof it doth not reveal in which respect we stand bound to believe the truth and being of many things the manner of whose beings we are no way bound to believe because it is not revealed So that though we can not conceive nor stand bound to believe how or after what manner the divine Person differeth from the divine Essence nor again this Essence from such a Person yet we may and do stand bound to believe that they are distinguished the Scripture revealing this and not the other This for reply to the Argument propounded in the first place Secondly Whereas the Argument affirmeth Sect. 4 That it is impossible for any man to distinguish the Person from the Essence of God and not to frame two beings in his mind and consequently two Gods We reply further That this is manifestly untrue if by two beings he meaneth two things compleatly subsisting each a part by it self as for instance In Intellectual created Beings I can conceive a man or the person of a man and again the humane Nature or Essence of a man which differs from his Person for a man as Thomas or any other is not the Humane Nature but only partakes of it or subsists in it I say I can conceive in my mind the Person of Thomas and the Nature of Thomas and yet not conceive two things compleatly and a part subsisting and consequently not conceive two Thomases For the Nature of Thomas I mean the Humane Nature doth not any where subsist in Thomas his person a part by it self but only in the several and respective persons of mankind In like manner I can very well conceive in my mind a divine Person for instance the Father or the Son and likewise can conceive the divine Nature and Essence and yet not necessarily conceive or frame two beings i.e. two things completely and apart subsisting in my mind for the Divine Nature or Essence doth not really subsist apart from or out of the divine Persons which partakes therein be they one or be they more as the Humane Nature doth not any where subsist but in Thomas John and the rest of the individual persons of mankind who partake of this nature But though the Divine Essence be one and the same thing really and substantially with a divine Person and with all the Three yet doth it differ from it in consideration and respect so that I may conceive a divine person in my mind and conceive the divine Essence also and yet not necessarily conceive two things really distinct much less two Gods but two things distinct only in consideration but really one and the same As in the divine Attributes the Justice of God and the Mercy of God and so the Wisdome Patience Goodness c. they are really one and the same thing in God but they differ in consideration for when I conceive or consider the Justice of God the
reply and grant all this to be true But add by way of Explication of our sense in this grant that though the word God when spoken of the most High God denoteth him that ruleth over all and consequently a person because Actions are proper unto Persons and not unto Natures or Essences Yet it doth not necessarily denote any one person determinately or with the exclusion of all others but may signifie either the Father or the Son or the Holy Ghost For it is true that every one of them joyntly and severally hath absolute authority over all And as we lately heard the Apostle speaking particularly of the Second Person Christ calleth him Rom. 9.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him who is God over all God blessed for ever which supremacy of power the same Apostle in the very same expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 attributeth unto God the Father also Eph. 4.6 Doubtless he that is over all is the most High God we do not hold or teach that the Divine Nature or Essence as such ruleth over all or performeth any action but only as personally subsisting in or communicated unto the Father Son and Holy Ghost And this for reply to this first Argument by which he endeavoureth to prove the Son to be a sack cloath the Holy Ghost to be a Creature and not God His second Argument is this If he Sect. 8 that gave the Holy Spirit to the Israelites to instruct them be God or Jehovah alone then the Holy Spirit is not Jehovah or God but he that gave the Holy Spirit to the Israelites to instruct them is Jehovah alone therefore the Holy Spirit is not God The sequel of the Major is plain for if he that gave the Holy Spirit be Jehovah alone and yet the Holy Spirit that was given be Jehovah too the same will be Jehovah alone and not Jehovah alone which implieth a contradiction The Minor he saith is evidenced by Neh. 9.6 20. To this we reply briefly that the sequel of the Major Proposition as plain as the Author of it would suppose it to be is reprovable and to be denied though he that gave the Holy Spirit to the Israelites be Jehovah alone yet may the Holy Spirit who is said to have been given be Jehovah also Nor doth it imply any contradiction that the same that is the same person or the same being should be Jehovah alone and not Jehovah alone viz. in different respects and considerations as thus the Father and there is the same reason of the Son and of the Holy Ghost may be Jehovah alone viz. the exclusive Particle alone excludes all Creatures or all Beings whatsoever which are not one and the same with his Being and yet not be Jehovah alone if by the Particle alone we intend to exclude the Son and the Hâ—ly Ghost being one and the same God or Being with him For the Son may be said to be Jehovah alone and the Holy Ghost Jehovah alone as well as the Father It is a Rule in Logick Ezclusiva particula subjecti non excludit concomitantia An exclusive Particle annexed to the subject in a Proposition doth not exclude such things as are concomitant to the subject or inseparable from it but only these whether Things or Persons that are of a forein consideration as when Christ saith Mat. 11.27 No man knoweth the Son but the Father which is equivalent to this only the Father knoweth the Son the meaning is not to exclude the Holy Ghost from this knowledge of the Son because only the Father is said to know him the Reason is because the Holy Ghost is one and the same God and so one and the same in knowledge with the Father So likewise when the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 2.11 The things of God knoweth none for so it is in the Original not no man but the Spirit his meaning is not to exclude the Son of God from knowing these things as well as the Spirit himself Because there being an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Fathers term it a reciprocal kind of in-being or mutual comprehension between the three Father Son and Holy Ghost every one of them subsisting and being in the other the Son must needs know the things of God as well as the Spirit And those that are excluded from part and fellowship with the Spirit in this knowledge are only Creatures and such as are not Essentially one and the same with the Spirit If a man should say only Abraham Sarahs Husband was a rich man in his daies it would not follow from hence that therefore Isaac's Father was not a rich man or that the Father of the Faithful was not a rich man That he that gave the Holy Spirit unto the Israelites and the Spirit who was given may well be and are one and the self same Jehovah shall be shewed when we come to the seventh Argument In the mean season you may please only to take notice of that of our Saviour in Joh. 10.30 I and my Father are one We know the Father is said to have given his Son as well as his Spirit and yet we hear from Christ himself that the giver and the gift or he that was given are one so that though God the Father be he that gave the Son the Son was he that was given or the gift yet notwithstanding our Saviour pronounceth that he and his Father i. e. the giver and the gift were one His third Argument is this He that speaketh not of himself Sect. 9 is not God the Holy Spirit speaketh not of himself therefore he is not God The Minor he saith is clear from Joh. 16.13 For he shall not speak of himself The Major he proveth thus God speaketh of himself therefore if there be any one that speaketh not of himself he is not God This is the very strength and sinews of this Argument that which followeth is but an explication of this with a proof and confirmation of it taken in his own sense and notion Yet that he may not complain that his Arguments are handled like David his Messengers to Hanun whose Garments were cut off by the middleâ— I shall read you the remainder of this present Argument from his own Pen and Paper The Antecedent is of it self apparent To this Argument and Discourse we answer First By distinguishing that Phrase or Expression speaking and not speaking of himself used in both Propositions of the first Syllogism A person may be said not to speak of himself two waies or in two several considerations First As our Adversary well informeth us from the several Texts of Scripture which he mentioneth in the close of his Argument when he speaketh by the shewing teaching commanding authorizing or enabling of another viz. that is extraessential to him and this kind of not speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of himself is indeed incompatible as he truly saith with God or with him that is truly God he that speaketh not of himself but
by the teaching authorizing or commanding of another really distinct from him that speaketh most certainly cannot be God Secondly A person may be said not to speak of himself the main strength subtilty and fallacy of this Argument lieth in that Phrase of himself viz. when he doth not speak of himself alone or without the co-speaking of another person with him for this you are to know and remember that many times the exclusive Particles only and alone are not expressed in the Scriptures when yet indeed they are to be necessarily understood thus Deut. 6.13 and so again 10.20 where Moses speaks thus unto the people Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him the meaning is Thou shalt serve him only or alone as our Saviour himself citing the place in the New Testament expoundeth it Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only or alone shalt thou serve Mat. 4.10 So Joh. 12.44 He that believeth on me believeth not on me but on him that sent me Believeth not on me i.e. not on me only or alone he hath not only one string to his bow for there is one besides me to support his Faith viz. my Father And our Saviour speaking of the branches of a Vine in that Parable Joh. 15. opposeth this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to that which is wholly from another in one kind or other much less from another differing in nature and substance from the said branch but to the solitariness or sole vertue of the branch being separate from the Vine As the branch cannot bear fruit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it self except it abideth in the Vine ver 4. And in the Application of the Parable ver 5. he expresseth the spiritual notion or thing which answereth it by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which importeth a separation from or exclusion of another I am the Vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because without me i. e. being separated or divided from me through unbelief ye can do nothing Now then in this latter sense of the Phrase speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of himself it is true the Holy Ghost speaks not of himself no more doth God the Father For God the Father speaks not of himself alone without the Son and without the Holy Ghost for both these speak together with him i.e. joyn in the same Action of speaking or of revealing things unto men which I suppose is that kind of speaking which is attributed to the Holy Ghost in Joh. 16.13 which is the grand Scripture wherein our Adversaries put their strength Howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that will he speak As the Lord Christ speaketh Joh. 5.17 My Father worketh hitherto and I work meaning that he and the Father wrought together and hence it is that as the speaking i. e. the revealing of spiritual things is here attributed unto the Holy Ghost so elsewhere it is ascribed unto the Father Mat. 16.17 11.25 Joh. 6.45 And sometimes to the Son Mat. 11.27 Luke 10.22 and frequently to God indefinitely taken i.e. for God the Father Son and Holy Ghost considered as one and the same God Gal. 1.15 Phil. 3.15 and elsewhere so that when Christ for the comforting and strengthening of the Faith of his Disciples telleth them that the Spirit when he cometh shall not speak of himself his meaning is that the Testimony of the Spirit in revealing what he shall reveal unto them shall not be a single Testimony which is less creditable he shall speak and reveal nothing unto them but wherein the Father and himself shall agree We might add for the further clearing of the Phrase of himself that we find in Joh. 11.51 where the Evangelist speaketh concerning the speech of Caiaphas the High Priest that it was expedient that one man should die for the People and not the whole Nation to perish This saith the Holy Ghost here of him spake he not of himself but as being High Priest Now the meaning hereof is not as if that Caiaphas had this saying dictated unto him or as if he were any way authorized or countenanced or had the saying suggested unto him from another or that there was another that did over-rule and guide and govern his lips or his tongue in bringing forth such a saying For the meaning cannot be that he spake it from the Holy Ghost for certainly the Holy Ghost could not be the Author of any such Counsel of putting the Lord of Life to death nor any way encouraging or aiding to such a work as this but yet the Holy Ghost had a hand in the business not in suggesting the Notion or wicked Counsel into the High Priest but he did over-rule and cause his Tongue to issue such words and sayings which having another Principle in his heart it is like if he had been left unto himself he would have brought out some other kind of way and said something which would have tended to the destroying or taking away the life of Christ but that it was brought out in that form of words which had a Prophetical face in them there was some kind of interposure of the Holy Ghost as there is in many Actions and sinful Sayings of men many times their tongues are over-ruled though the substance of what they say is evil yet there are some strains in it which are from a Principle Superiour unto themselves Now I say apply we the distinction of the Phrase speaking not of himself to the Argument and you will readily find the weakness and insufficiency of it And that there are four terms which alwaies make a fallacious Syllogism that is if the same words be taken in one sense in one Proposition and in another sense in the other Proposition this now maketh four terms and so maketh the Syllogism void and inconclusive of any thing So much for this Argument He that speaketh not of himself is not God the Holy Ghost speaketh not of himself therefore he is not God If we take the Phrase speaking not of himself in the latter sense explained so the Major Proposition is false for he may be yea and truly is God who in this sense speaketh not of himself i.e. who speaketh not but in conjunction with others If you take the said words in the former sense so the Major Proposition is true but the Minor is false For the Holy Spirit doth speak of himself in this sense i. e. he speaketh the same thing with the Father and the Son and doth not speak by the motion or direction of any person or being separated from him The fourth Argument is of affinity with the former Sect. 10 and presenteth it self in this form He that heareth from another what he shall speak is not God the Holy Ghost doth so
a greater presence of God and where he filleth the hearts and souls of men with his presence there he riseth and advanceth in a more excellent manner with greater accommodations teaching them how to pray meaning the manner how they should pray Now in that he is said to relieve our infirmities and to help our ignorances when we pray and so to teach the Saints to pray as they ought by making Intercession for them the meaning is that he teacheth them a prayer of a more excellent and of a more spiritual import and teacheth them how to present this Prayer of theirs upon terms of a richer and more high acceptation unto God And Gal. 4.6 it is said God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Alba Father This is a Phrase or Figure of speakking wherein Actions are ascribed unto those who are the means or cause of them and not to the Actors themselves As for instance Charity is said to believe all things and to hope all things because it doth qualifie and dispose the Person where it is found thus to believe all things and to hope all things So here the Spirit is said to cry Abba Father and so to make intercession for the Saints because he doth teach enable and dispose them both to the one and to the other You had a taste of that formerly in Jude ver 20. praying in the Holy Ghost that is by or through the help and assistance of the Holy Ghost According to the same figure our Saviour's Saying unto his Apostles is to be understood Mar. 10.20 For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you When they should come before Rulers and Governours he saith it was not they that should speak but the Holy Ghost that was within them his meaning is not that the Holy Ghost did speak the words but only because the Holy Ghost did furnish them with such and such things which they should speak So now they that be filled with the Spirit of God there is as it were a characteristical difference between the same kind of actions in them and that which proceedeth from other men who have not the same edge of spirit and life in them these are full of power and authority and heavenly lustre and beauty in their actions and doings whereas the like actions and performances of persons that do them without the Spirit have nothing of excellency in them Now of how great and blessed a consequence is it unto you to be enabled to pray effectually to carry things in Heaven richly and upon terms of highest acceptation If we could but weigh this one priviledge or advantage alone in the balance we should find it to weigh more than all the Silver and Gold in the World What To be able to pray yea to pray unto God with acceptation to pray so as to be able to prevail with God and that about great matters for States and Kingdoms as they may that have an interest in Heaven as such persons we speak of have Such men might carry the World before them they might pluck up States and Kingdoms they might be as great in Heaven as Nâ—buchadnezzar was here upon Earth whom he would he set up and whom he would he pulled down so had we interest in Heaven as we might have we might do likewise It is like we are at such a pass as the Disciples were at when it is said that they believed not for joy when Christ came first amongst them the consideration of his being rose again from the dead was a business of such a mighty consequence such a matter of joy that it became a stumbling-block in the way of their faith They believed not for joy i. e. they were not capable of the most demonstrative Arguments and Convictions as when he shewed them his hands and his feet and talked with them This is the case of this great Priviledge I speak of viz. of carrying matters in Heaven we are conscious to our selves that we are poor and weak men and women whom the men of this World are generally ready to to be treading and trampling under foot and to despise Oh my Brethren the things we speak of How incredible above measure are they Yet it is a most certain and an undoubted truth that if we be filled with the Spirit of God we might pray at such a rate and after such a manner that we might carry our Petitions in Heaven and even whatsoever we should ask in the Name of Jesus Christ according to the will of God And we need have no larger Rule than this we need not desire a larger Commission than the compass of the Will of God For all things are according to the Will of God which are necessary for the comforts and accommodation of men and women in the World round about Jâ—m 5.16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as all Greek Authors give out the proper signification of it is this It noteth a Person that is possessed or acted by a supernatural power whether it be of an holy or an unclean Spirit above their Sphere so now that prayer viz. the effectual fervent prayer c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is acted wrought and raised by a Spirit which is greater than the spirit of man and therefore of necessity by no other than the Spirit of God the Holy Ghost himself who thus raised and lifted up himself in might and power to enable them hereunto Eighthly and lastly By being filled with the Spirit of God Sect. 18 you shall by the mediation of the fruit and consequence of the particular last mentioned consult to your selves so much the better Resurrection and consequently the better Eternity I allude to that place in the latter end of Heb. 11. where the Author speaking of the Servants of God saith that they might obtain a better Resurrection where the Antecedent is put for the Consequent a better Resurrection for a better State in the Resurrection There are other waies and practices or at least may be upon which men may obtain the fatness of Heaven the best of the glory and great things of the World to come But there is none so certain or regular none within the reach of the Wisdom or Providence of men that a man may rely and reckon upon whereby to consult to himself a better Heaven but only that we speak of A being filled with the Spirit of God If you be made great in the Kingdom of Heaven in any other way or by any other means than that we speak of you must as well be beholding to the sin and wickedness of other men as to your own worth grace or faithfulness and there must be more than an ordinary hand in the Providence of God to bring it to pass For what other waies or means are there of obtaining a greater preeminence in glory than the
16 It is the first-born of improbabilities or things that are unlikely that the Church of Christ which as the Apostle styleth it is The House of the living God 1 Tim. 3.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The pillar and ground or stay of truth in the midst whereof Jesus Christ himself delights to be continually walking and making himself known should ever since the Apostles times now for 1600 years and upwards lie wallowing in the horrid pollutions of so foul and gross an Error as to judge him who is a Creature to be God Can any man lightly be so simple as to think or imagine a snuff of a Candle to be the Sun And is there not a far greater difference between the ever blessed and incomprehensible God and any Creature of the greatest perfection that is imaginable than there is between the snuff of a Candle and the Sun Or is it worthy the belief or thoughts of any sober Christian that Jesus Christ for so many hundred of years together should not have awakened his Beloved out of such a Lethargy or sleep of death as was fallen upon her whilest she said in effect to a Stock thou art my Maker and to a Stone thou art my Redeemer Or what is it less or less unworthy than this to say unto a Creature thou art my God They who have but any tolerable thoughts of Jesus Christ his love and care over his Church cannot have such hard thoughts of him Fourthly Nor can it reasonably be imagined that the Holy Ghost would have received with so much patience and with so much silence nay with so much acceptation from the hand of the Christian World the acknowledgements of a Deity had he not been conscious to himself that they were his due and that he neither did either God the Father or the Son the least injury or wrong in receiving them at the hands of men But were he not or had he not been God he had trespassed after a very provoking and high manner against him who is God indeed in accepting his appropriate Royalties and suffering himself to be admired and adored amongst the Churches as God Doubtless the sin of receiving any acclamation from men or any thing else which is appropriate unto God alone is a sin of a very exasperating nature As it was with Herod who was struck with an Angel Acts 12.22 And we read Rev. 19.10 22.9 when John made a tender of Divine Worship to the Angel though he did not call him by the name of God yet when he did but exhibite that which was appropriate unto God the Angel would not suffer him nor admit it The Angel seemed to be exceeding tender and jealous of receiving so much as the hint or the first fruits of divine honour John thought that he that had revealed unto him such heavenly Mysteries was worthy of all honour therefore rather than not to shew himself thankful and respectful unto him for that unspeakable kindness of the Revelation he would needs give him something and having nothing at hand to repuite this high courtesie from the Angel that revealed such hidden mysteries to him but Divine Worship and honour he would bestow that upon him but the Angel would by no means suffer him to do it The truth is our Adversaries themselves at this turn do not make much scruple of this namely that Divine Honour should be given both to the Son and to the Holy Ghost and that they may and ought of duty to accept it though in the mean time they do deny the Godhead both of the One and of the Other But into the secrets of such a Notion my soul knoweth not the way how to enter nor can I comprehend or understand how they can either make Reason or truth of such a conceit to deny the Persons to be God by Nature and yet notwithstanding to judge it lawful and meet that Divine Honour should be exhibited and tendered unto them Upon what ground they can satisfie themselves in bringing together this East and West their strange opinion on the one hand and their practice which seemeth to affront it on the other hand How they can make peace between two that are at so great an enmity and distance between themselves I am not able to comprehend unless they mean by Divine Worship only something that is more Sacred or more August than the Reverence that is due unto man Bat this will not however salve the Opinion though it be formed and put into never so artificial and handsome terms Yea though it might be salved with such a sense and interpretation put upon it yet it is not worthy a Christian and especially a Teacher of others to put the mind of God or any Notion of Truth into ambiguous terms which need more unfolding than needs must for it is good to cloath the Truth in such a manner that it may be most familiar and nearest at hand to be received by the Judgments and Understandings of men But to the business in hand May the greatest Subject in a Kingdom lawfully go up into his Sovereigns Bed or require of his fellow Subjects that they swear Loyalty and Homage unto him as unto their Sovereign Or doth not the Scriptures from place to place make it Fornication Whoredom Adultery when that Worship which is appropriately due unto God is given unto any other Fifthly Sect. 17 We know that the sin of Idolatry is from place to place in the Scripture expresly numbred amongst those high provocations and misdemeanours which absolutely and peremptorily exclude from the Kingdom of God and from Salvation 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Rev. 21 8. So that they who deny the Holy Ghost to be God do hereby First Make the whole Christian World in a manner or comparatively as hath been said Fathers Martyrs Confessors and whole Christian Churches to be Idolaters Secondly By a Scripture consequence pregnant and undeniable they do adjudge them all to the vengeance of hell fire But it is a small thing with persons of a proud and peremptory spirit to sacrifice not only the names honour and reputations of the worthiest men under heaven but even their souls and salvation also upon the service of their own opinions and conceits The Lord Christ himself must be a Samaritan and have a Devil that the Scribes and Pharisees may be presumed to be in the truth And so holy and worthy men who above all the World besides have had most acquaintance with God Ignatius Justin Martyr Ireneus Epiphanius Basil Nazianzen Chrysostome Jerome Austin and who not of all those great and famous lights of the Christian World in their daies must be all Idolaters and sent down into Hell that a Crown of glory may be set upon the head of a fond Opinion little less or rather not at all less than Blasphemy and to make way that they who deny the Godhead of the Spirit may be saved For though it be hard peremptorily to deny a possibility of salvation
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
That from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath understand it of the Spirits withdrawing of himself from men and falling lower and lower in his presence and motions proportionably to mens unthankfulness neglect and opposition to him we do not conceive either of the one or the other of these Lawsor Rules as if the Holy Ghost would universally and in all cases whatsoever bind himself unto them especially to that in either of them which beareth hard upon the Creature but that our Saviours meaning was only to declare unto the world what the Common Laws or terms of the Spirits proceedings and dealings with men would be and what men were to trust to and expect ordinarily from him and so bethink themselves of behaving themselves accordingly If you ask me what I mean by that which beareth hard upon the Creature in each of the Laws or Rules mentioned I answer concerning the former Rule to him that hath shall be given if it should be meant that the Holy Ghost will give unto none but unto him that hath that is that improveth and maketh use of what he hath received this would bear hard upon the Creature By bearing hard I do not mean any manner of injustice or unrighteousness or hard dealing of the Holy Ghost towards men but only such a thing which if it should take place and be done would turn to the damage or loss of the Creature as it must needs do unto many if that the Holy Ghost should give only unto those and to none other but those that are said to have because the greatest part of men have not in the sense of this saying but the Holy Ghost may walk by this Rule that is may give to every one that hath in the sense declared and yet may give to many also that have not as a rich man may give relief to all his poor neighbours and yet sometimes give an alms to him that is a stranger also As to the latter Law From him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath it is not necessary to suppose neither that this should import that the Holy Ghost should universally or in all cases without exception wholly desert or forsake him that hath not that is doth not alwaies entertain his motions respectfully and apply himself unto them Nay I suppose that in the rigour of this sense this Law is never observed by him For according to this sense it would follow that if a man should for never so short a time were it but for a day or an hour deal unkindly by the Holy Ghost neglect or reject his motions that he would out of hand totally and finally withdraw himself from him But as to this point the Scriptures frequently shew the case to be far otherwise and that the Spirit of God is full of patience and long-suffering towards men even towards froward and gain-saying men waiting a long time upon them if yet they will consider and bethink themselves of compliance with him How long ye simple ones saith the Spirit of wisdom Pro. 1.22 to foolish and froward men will ye love simplicity c. which shews that this Spirit had for a long time attended upon them And so 2 Chron. 36.15 The Lord God of their Fathers sent unto them by his Messengers rising up betimes and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place And they mocked the messengers of God and despised his Prophets and misused his messengers untill the wrath of God rose upon them and there was no remedy This passage plainly sheweth that the Spirit of God fought as it were a pitched battel with them or rather with their wickedness endeavouring to overcome it He had them under his hand and was perswading and instructing them for a long time before he withdrew himself wholly from them And therefore when our Saviour threatens from him that hath not shall be taken away c. the meaning first must needs be this From him that hath not viz. within some considerable time after that the Spirit of God hath graciously intreated him and lovingly stroven with him He that doth not within the time of a man as we may say that is in which men may very well and as we use to say at leisure bethink themselves of the grand concernments of their souls and within which usually such men as do ever repent are wont to repent and return unto God from such a man the Spirit of God will withdraw Secondly Concerning that clause shall be taken away even that he hath the meaning is not as if all that such a man hath all the presence or gifts or gracious workings of the Spirit shall be withdrawn from him suddenly or at once but shall be taken away viz. by degrees and in time Such a man shall still be on the losing and declining hand as long as he is amongst the number of those that have not and at last will be stripped of all and left utterly naked Thirdly and lastly That which I would have especially to be considered in this Minatory or Penal Law asserted by the Scripture From him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath is not so to be understood either as if in no case or for no accommodation either of the Gospel or of Men or of the Glory of God or the like it were dispensable or as if the Holy Ghost had so obliged himself by it that upon no occasion whatsoever he would vary from it but this Law is enacted in Heaven upon these terms that it should be the express the usual and ordinary course which the Holy Ghost would observe in treating with men about the great matters of their peace and that no man shall expect other dealings from him the said Law being most equitable and just meetest indeed to be the standing Law of his transactions with men however in some special cases a strict observance of it might not be so expedient It is very frequent in the Scriptures Sect. 12 for God to deliver and express as well threatnings as promises absolutely in respect of the tenour or form of words wherein they are delivered without the least whisper or noyse of any exception or clause of restriction when as notwithstanding both the one and the other are conditional and were by him intended for none other Instances of Conditional Promises delivered in words absolute and without mention of any Condition we may find 1 Sam 2.30 I said indeed speaking unto Ely that thy Fathers house should walk before me for ever there was no Condition expressed in this Promise of God unto Ely his Fathers house But yet it is clear in Ely his own case and the instance of his own person that God in this promise intended a Condition which he had reserved to himself which was that in case his Father and those of his Posterity should walk uprightly and serve him in the
the Faith of the greatest and best resolved Believers amongst the Children of men The second thing was this to display manage and act this Faith before the World that they may see it as it were face to face and that the fruit evidence testimony and account of it may be fully adaequate and Commensurable to the truth and all the degrees of the reality of it The third and last thing whereunto all men stand bound and by the performance whereof they must needs bless the World was the keeping of the Commands of God How and in what respects the performance of all these must needs stand the World in eminent stead was shewed formerly We have now only to shew how they cannot be performed without their being filled with the Spirit of God who shall perform them First Sect. 8 For that notable strain and generous kind of believing we spake of As no Faith no kind or degree of believing can be attained or raised in the soul but by the Holy Ghost so much less can any excellent or worthy strain hereof be raised or exerted in men but by the glorious might of the same Holy Ghost Doubtless there is no man believeth upon any other terms than those did who are said Acts 18.27 to have believed through grace that is through the gracious operation and assistance of the Holy Ghost So likewise 1 Pet. 1.22 Seeing you have purified your hearts or souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit c. implying that neither had they obeyed the truth meaning the Gospel that is believed it the Gospel being there under the notion of truth as elsewhere made the Object of Faith had not the Spirit of God done very graciously by them in awaking and exciting them hereunto They would never in any serious manner have so much as though upon this believing had not the Holy Ghost put them upon it The Gospel and mens hearts are commonly strangers the World and their sensuality and folly make them so They have little knowledge one of another and doubtless would never have been brought together but by the mediation of that most gracious and blessed Spirit Now the Spirit of God bringeth the hearts of men and the Gospel together by causing a kind of enterview to be between them for a while upon which if there be not an extream frowardness and desperateness of folly in the hearts of men the glory and beauty of the things to be believed being presented unto them by the Holy Ghost will overcome them and so there will follow a blessed union and agreement between them Now as the first and lowest greeting between the Souls and consciences of men and the Gospel was procured by the simple interposure of the Spirit of God so must that glorious and more near interview between them which we call face to face viz. such a Faith which giveth presentiality or real subsistence unto the great things of the Gospel in the spirits and souls of men which alone is the Faith that will bless the World by amazing it with its glory breaking forth in semblable actions this say we must be obtained not simply by the Holy Ghost but by him in his more sublime and raised actings Eph. 3.14 16. For this cause faith the Apostle bow I my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inward man c. The Apostle travelling in birth with a great matter of grace and spiritual blessing for this people and Church of God he telleth them he bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named c. meaning by this Character and Consideration that he is the Root of all that Family that is worthy to be put into account that is of all that are holy and righteous where ever they be and that they take their denomination as well as their spiritual and happy being from him But for what did he bow his knees to the Father of c It was That he would grant them according to the riches of his glory see how he laboureth and toyleth to be delivered of what he had conceived to ask of God for them to be strengthened with might by his Spirit c. But why doth he insert this clause according to the riches of his glory Doubtless his meaning is to inform them that though the request which he was now making unto God for them was exceeding great viz. that they might be strengthened with might by his Spirit c. yet there was good ground of hope that he should obtain it because the grant of it was but according to the riches of his glory that is proportionable or sutable to that glorious abundance of Grace Love Bounty Power c. which reside in him and are his Glory So that he knew that God could very well afford it notwithstanding the greatness of it being so richly furnished with all things necessary for the performance of it So that it is as if he had said I know it were in vain for me to how my knees to God for any such benefit for you as your strengthening with might by his Spirit did not I know he is exceeding rich in Glory in Bounty in Grace in Love c. Therefore in this you may be comforted that I do not beg this heavenly bread for you out of any desolate place or at such a hand where it was not to be had or from any such heart which is shut up against you no but from him who is both able and willing to give unto all that ask Good measure heaped up pressed down and running over Luke 6.8 Yea and this in things of greatest consequence and value well knowing that it is his glory thus to do Now to be strengthened with might in the inner man signifies more than simply to believe Yea more than simply to be strengthened in or by believing it imports a powerful strengthening or an excellent and high degree of corroboration or stoutness in their spirits hearts and souls by means whereof they should be able both to do and to suffer and this without much regret or trouble greater things for God and for the Gospel than the common sort of Believers can But why doth pray that this mighty strengthening in the inner man might be wrought by the Spirit I answer Because it is the appropriate work of the Spirit thus to elevate and raise the hearts and spirits of men above fears and doubtings God never conferring this high Priviledge upon Believers themselves without his interposure And besides it is considerable that it is the manner of the Saints throughout the Scriptures and so it was observed by Christ himself in his Prayer Joh. 17.11 17 19 20. that whenever they make any great request unto
duty and more especially the duty of every Believer to desire and seek after part and fellowship in the highest Consolations which the Gospel administreth and which are attainable by men thereby because without being baptized with such a baptism as this men will not be in that singular and signal capacity to shew forth the vertues or pleasant and lovely things of God which they ought to lift up their hearts and desires unto That which as we said is asserted plainly in the Reason Sect. 8 is that without being filled with the Spirit men and women will never be able to reach the Consolations of the Gospel where they run high and carry in them a strong savour of life and immortality Now for the opening and clearing of this unto you you are to take knowledge and consider that men and women may so go to work may stand upon such terms before God and the Gospel for many years together that according to the ordinary and settled course of Divine Providence in the World and the exigency of second causes they will not be like I mean whilst they continue in such a way to know what the Consolations of the Gospel in those veins of it in which they are most soveraign rich and glorious mean Yea the truth is considering the present experiment which persons of both Sexes generally give of themselves in the World there is scarce one of a City or two of a Tribe whose hearts do in any measure serve them to live up to such terms which are like to render them capable of eating the fat and drinking the sweet of the Gospel For First men that savour as the Scripture speaks the things which are of men and love this present World are not in any likely capacity but only upon the changing of the frame of their mind and of their course of life ever to know what is the hope of their Calling as the Apostle speaks either in respect of the ground of it what pregnant lively and abundantly satisfactory arguments and grounds there are why they should hope for and expect all the great things which the Gospel promiseth or else what is his hope in respect of the object of it how glorious excellent and wonderful these things are which are now hoped for and will be found of all those that shall with Faith and Patience wait upon God for them Men and women I say that stick fast with their minds and hearts in the mire and clay of this present World are never like to know what the hope of the Gospel-calling is in either consideration and consequently not to inherit or enjoy in this World the riches of the glory of the Gospel Consolations The Reasons hereof are many we shall hint only two First Because when the intellectual powers and faculties of the Soul are drunk up with worldly and sensual engagements or over-acted upon the things which are seen they become aukward indisposed and unserviceable for spiritual negotiations and imployments about heavenly things By such low and mean Converse as this they contract an habit of a kind of intellectual rudeness and disingeniousness by reason whereof they know not how to quit or behave themselves about more noble and high-born objects nor indeed care not much to have to do with them or come into their company Even as persons that have been alwaies bred and brought up inter sordes amongst rude and rustical people of course and rough behaviour cannot presently change their temper and disposition and so become capable of conversing orderly and according to the principles of Civility with persons of better quality and more refined carriage and by reason of a consciousness to themselves in this kind they avoid as much as well they may the company of such persons In like manner those divine discoveries made in the Gospel those veins of wisdom and of the knowledge of God there upon which I mean upon the apprehension of which the high raisings and liftings up in Evangelical Consolations of which we speak chiefly depend being of a very fine spinning very spiritual and remote from the common thoughts and apprehensions of men and much more from the thoughts of such minds and understandings which have accustomed themselves wholly in a manner to this Worlds affairs persons of this Character knowing that these things lie out of the way of their Genius and that they are not able to conceive of them with much contentment to themselves nor to speak of them with contentment unto others in these respects take little or no pleasure to enquire after them nor to engage themselves to any purpose in the study of them So then this is one reason why such persons who are over-intent and bent upon this present World are not like to ascend in spirit into the Region of light where the Consolations we speak of have their dwelling and are to be found viz. because by continual digging in the earth with their reasons apprehensions and understandings they make them blunt and dull and altogether unapt to take the Genuine and through impressions of such Gospel-notions wherein the riches of the comforts thereof are laid up as in a store-house Secondly Another Reason hereof is because as we lately heard the revelations and discoveries of these Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge that are hid in the Gospel in the understanding and clear apprehension whereof as we lately likewise shewed the strength of the said Consolations lye are made over or as we may speak safely enough and yet more plainly are promised by God by way of reward unto those that love him and proportionably the fuller measure of them to those that love him above the rate of his ordinary friends Now the Holy Ghost expresly informs us 1 Joh. 2.15 That if any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him Yea the Apostle James goeth somewhat further or at least speaketh more plainly affirming That the friendship of the World is enmity with God and that whosoever will be a friend unto the World is an enemy unto God James 4.4 If the love of the Father of God the Father be not in men the deep things of God in the Gospel such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard c. are not prepared or made ready to be communicated unto them nor indeed are they prepared or fit to receive and understand them This then in a word is another Reason why persons much addicted to this present World are not like to sit at the upper end of the Table which is spread with the Consolations of the Gospel Secondly Sect. 9 Neither are they like to taste of the Feast we speak of or be filled with the best and choycest of the comforts of the Gospel who are hard of bowels cruel unmerciful hard to forget and forgive injuries yea who have not eyes and hearts full of commiseration and of pity hearts well exercised with mercy For as mercy in the Apostle Jame's
to one and the same weight in glory We shall at present add a few Scriptures Sect. 8 and some Arguments very briefly to demonstrate the truth of what is supposed in the Reason in hand viz. that God distributeth rewards unto his Saints by different measures and degrees And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many unto righteousness as the stars for ever and ever Dan. 12.3 Doubtless the Holy Ghost would not particularize a special and eminent service such as the turning of many to righteousness is as that they who have been diligent and faithful in it should be signally rewarded by God in the Great Day if all services or the most profitable kind of services otherwise should be rewarded and recompensed by God upon equal terms with them Consider the plain tenour of the words They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many unto righteousness as the stars for ever and ever If so be that he had intended or if this had been his sense That all Believers or that all the Servants of God all that fear God without exception should have been partakers of these rewards signified by the shining of the stars for ever and ever there can no reason be given nor a colour of reason why he should single out a certain vein of persons from amongst the great Community of the Saints namely such as turn many to righteousness that is that have endeavoured and done that which was in their power to do to turn many unto righteousness as if none should be rewarded at the Resurrection with that peculiarity of reward but such Nay doubtless his intent is to shew that whereas there shall be very many rewarded and that very graciously and bountifully at that day yet there will be appropriate rewards Crowns as it were made on purpose more weighty and massie in glory than the rest for such persons as these Then again consider that passage of our Saviour to the Mother of Zebedeus children Mat. 20. She came to him desiring a certain thing of him which was that he would grant that her two Sons might sit the one on his right hand and the other on his left hand in his Kingdom Now I suppose that here by sitting on the right and on the left hand of Jesus Christ in his Kingdom are meant and I think no man did ever lift up a thought to the contrary the chiefest and highest places of glory and spiritual preferment in his Kingdom Possibly she might look to an earthly Kingdom and direct her request in reference thereunto but when Christ gave his answer unto her he doth not deny but that there was a right hand and a left hand in his Kingdom some more honourable and richer manifestations and communications of the infinite blessedness of God than others For thus saith he Ye shall drink indeed of my Cup and be baptized with the Baptism wherewith I am baptized but to sit on my right hand and left is not mine c. He here supposeth and giveth that to her for granted that there was such a thing such Prerogative honour in his Kingdom as sitting on his right hand and left but withal informeth her thus that they were not his to give save only to such for whom they were prepared of his Father implying that God hath prepared these places for persons of the greatest worth and eminency in his service on whom only they shall be conferred And so 1 Cor. 3.8 there is a place that springs yet another Notion relating to the Point in hand He that planteth and he that watereth is one and every man the Translation is somewhat dull and takes off the edge of the Scripture much it should not be and every man but but every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour The latter part of this verse seems clearly to imply thus much That every man hath a Labour of his Own that is a measure or degree of service so appropriately his that the service of no other Saint shall be precisely in worth or value commensurable to it and consequently that he shall have a Reward of his Own in the same sense somewhat which doth according to the standard of divine bounty exactly answer his labour So that that which I conceive to be hinted here is not simply this that there are either different or indifferent rewards reserved in the heavens by God to be conferred upon different Saints but that there will be no two Saints in heaven whose rewards shall be equal For though we cannot find a real difference between the serviceableness the faithfulness and worthiness of every Saint throughout the World throughout the whole armies of them yet God who weigheth with a more exact ballance than men do if so be there be never so little more if any Saint hath but the advantage of an hairs breadth in any spiritual worth above another God I say is perfectly apprehensive of it and will interpose by his righteousness that he shall have his own reward Now if we shall suppose that every one shall receive anothers reward and so according to anothers labour which he must needs suppose that holdeth all rewards equal then shall no man or no more than one receive his own reward in the sense lately declared or that which is exactly proportionable unto his own labour But in that adversative Particle but I suppose the Apostle secretly glances at the neglect and contempt which the Corinthians cast upon him preferring as we know and highly prizing and setting up in their esteem other teachers above him those that were not so sound in Doctrine or beneficial in teaching or safe for them to hearken or lean unto being men that were eloquent and spake fairly and smoothly and carried themselves with a kind of stately deportment these kind of Teachers did insinuate apace and win ground of Paul in the hearts and minds of the Corinthians Now the Apostle after that he had in the former part of the Context propounded these questions Who is Paul And who is Apollos And further said I have planted and Apollos watered he tells them that he that planteth and he that watereth are one meaning in their end and scope of their labour both the one and the other seeking after and endeavouring the peace and comfort and salvation of men He that planteth that is he that converteth men and he that watereth that is he that edifieth and helpeth men to persevere unto the end these are one they meet together in the same end But saith he every one shall receive of the Lord his own reward as if he had said Ye may judge of me as you please you may set me beneath the meanest of all your Teachers and value my work in the Ministry accordingly but the best is I shall not be considered or rewarded by God according to your estimate or opinion
a regular capacity to attain them that is to endeavour to make themselves such by a Christian worthiness of life and conversation and deporting of themselves in every kind both towards God and Man as best becometh them These high and choice preferments in Heaven must be for whom they are prepared It is not saith Christ being solicited by the Mother for the Sons it is not mine to give but saith our Translation it shall be given unto them for whom it is prepared of my Father Now these words it shall be given unto them are not in the original neither were they spoken by Christ The words of the Text are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that is It is not mine to give but unto those or except it be unto those or but only unto those the restrictive Particle only being frequently to be understood as I have shewed by several instances upon another occasion for whom it hath been prepared Therefore his meaning doubtless is this not to deny that they were his to give but that they were not his to give to any other but only unto those that is to that kind of person or to such for whom they were prepared designed or appointed by the Father By the way this Particle or Pronoun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated for whom doth not point at any particular person or persons by name as if for example there were any two persons amongst the universality of mankind for whom in a personal consideration or because they were such and such individual persons places were prepared or intended by God for them but the said Particle is to be taken adjectively as it is in several other places and not meerly nominally or pronominally that is not as signifying naked or meer subjects but subjects so and so qualified or disposed So you have it in other places of Scripture besides this as in 2 Tim. 1.12 For I know whom I have believed that is what manner of one what manner of God how great how faithful and how full of power he is in whom I have believed So that the Pronoune whom here doth not meerly signifie the Person or Essence of God but God with his Attributes as endued with those excellencies and perfections which make him a God meet to be trusted in and relied upon And so our Saviour himself Joh. 3.18 speaking unto the rest of his Disciples of Judas and his treachery I know saith he whom I have chosen meaning not how many or what persons by name but what manner or what kind of persons they are how affected how inclined or disposed whom I have made choice of to be my Disciples I know the frame of their heatts and of their spirits I know the rest of you are true and faithful and will not betray me I know likewise concerning one of you that he is unfaithful and will prove a Traytor unto me And so Rom. 9.15 God saith to Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion that is on what kind of persons I please or on persons qualified to mine own mind and liking and not on such whom men shall obtrude upon me as persons more meet and worthy in their eye on whom I should have mercy that is whom I should justifie and save The meaning is not although it be frequently so carried and understood that God will shew mercy on whom that is on what persons or individuals of mankind personally and by name considered as he pleaseth but by those on whom he so peremptorily and resolvedly asserteth and declareth that he will have mercy and that he will not be altered in his purpose concerning them he meaneth the whole Species of Believers whoever or how many soever they shall be these being persons qualified to his mind on that behalf I mean judged meet by him to have the mercy here spoken of shewed on them and the only persons thus qualified For by the mercy here specified is not meant the mercy of Conversion repentance regeneration believing or the like but the mercy of justification or acceptance with God For this justification was the subject of the Apostles discourse where he insisteth on the words before us not any of the other And God may well express his justifying of men or his pardoning their sins by shewing mercy unto them because whilst they lie under the guilt of sin they are in a state of greatest misery But the sense of this Text of Scripture we have diligently inquired after in our exposition on Rom. 9. Pag. 150 151 c. to the end of pag. 160. where I trust you may amply satisfie your selves about it The said Particle who or whom you may find used again and this twice together in the same Concrete or adjective sense as I call it a little after viz. ver 18. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth that is he hardeneth what manner of persons or what kind of sinners or wicked men he pleaseth Again in these words of the Jews unto Christ Joh. 8.25 Whom makest thou thy self to be Their meaning was What manner of person how great how holy how far above all other men wouldest thou make us to believe thee to be To forbear more instances at present when David demands Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle c Psal 15.1 his meaning is what kind of persons how qualified or what lives and conversations must they be as appears by the sequel of the Psalm and the description of the men here But this only by the way and occasionally for the clearing the place cited Mat. 2.20 That which we have at present to shew is That it is not at every mans nor indeed at any mans liberty or pleasure whether he will live or act so or at such a rate of righteousness and holiness whilst he liveth in the World as simply to be saved and no more but the whole World of mankind joyntly and severally stand charged by him that is the great King thereof as with matter of duty to design the greatest and most desirable glory in the Kingdom of Heaven the first-born of that glory which is competent to the Children of men they stand bound to project mansions for themselves as near to the mansion of the Lord Christ as may be where they may have the richest Communication of the Great God unto them which he judgeth meet to make of himself unto men they ought to strive respectively for the wearing of the richest and weightiest Crown of glory that is prepared and laid up in heaven for those whose hearts will serve them with an holy and heavenly ambition to aspire unto it Now Sect. 14 that it is a duty lying upon all men to strive after that which the Scripture calleth perfection and consequently to exercise themselves in such things which are proper to invest them with such a capacity as
with him wherein he descended into the lower parts of the Earth Eph. 4.9 having first made himself of no reputation but took on him the form of a servant and became obedient unto death even unto the death of the Cross Phil. 2.7 8. And upon this account when he was now ready to drink that Cup which was of that horrid taste unto the humane nature we find him full of the meditation of that glory which he fully believed would be conferred on him upon his sufferings praying unto his Father thus And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the World was Joh. 17.5 The meaning of the Petition seems to be this That whereas the glory of his Godhead had now been veiled many years by his living in the form of a Servant and was now like to be veiled much more by suffering as a Malefactor that ignominious and cruel death which now attended him his Father would please to make it fully known unto the World by such means as he well knew how to do it that he was not the person which hitherto during his abode in the World he was judged to be a meer man but truly and really God even the same God with himself For this doubtless is the glory the glory of the Godhead which he had with the Father before the World was This also by the way But pertinent to the Notion in hand That it was the minding of his Exaltation to ensue that supplied him with strength to be baptized with that bloudy Baptism which he endured is that which we read concerning an Angel from Heaven appearing to him and strengthening him When he was so earnest in Prayer with his Father to remove the Cup of his Sufferings from him and ready upon the thoughts of it to fall into that most grievous Agony in which he sweat as it were drops of bloud Luke 22.43 44. That which the Angel did to strengthen him in this sad condition that is to support him in a willingness and contentedness of mind to drink the said Cup from his Father's hand was say some with probability enough a vigorous and vivid representation to his mind and thoughts of all that most superlative glory wherewith he was most assuredly to be rewarded by God for and upon the drinking of it according to the Doctrine of the Apostle Phil. 2.9 10 11. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him c. And therefore I cannot here but give notice by the way that the Note upon the passage lately cited from Heb. 12.2 which is found in the Margin of some of your larger Bibles of the former Translation leading you to a by-sense of the place is no waies intended by the Holy Ghost nor at all comporting with the scope of the Apostles discourse But to open the occasion of the mistake in this Note which seems to be a defect either in the knowledge or in the memory of the Authors of it that the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is frequently used in a causal sense signifying as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that is for the sake of as well as in a local sense in which it signifies for that is in the place or in the stead of another whether thing or person together with the reasons evincing that there is a mistake in it would occasion too large a digression This therefore for a third consideration towards the demonstration intended Fourthly Upon the same account it is yet further considerable Sect. 18 that according as men pitch their desires either higher or lower so will they proportion their endeavours for the obtaining of them The higher the mark is at which the Archer or Cannâ—nâ—er intendeth to strike or hit the higher the one directeth the point or head of his Arrow and the other mounteth the muzle of his Cannon What men judge may be compassed or procured by weaker or fewer means they will not put themselves to the trouble or charge of Levying more or greater for the Atchievement The men that were sent by Joshuah to view the City of Ai returning advised him thus Let not all the people go up but let about two or three thousand men go up to smite Ai and make not all the people to labour thither for they are but few Josh 7.3 It is observed that whilst the people were fewer and so the Sacrifices fewer and consequently the work of the Sanctuary so much the lighter and more easie to be performed the Levites and those that were to be employed about it were taken into the Service not until thirty years of age and upwards Num. 4.3 whereas afterwards in David's time when the people were encreased and so the Sacrifices more numerous and in that respect required more to attend the service about them the persons of this charge were by the order and appoitment of God himself taken into the work from twenty years old and upwards 1 Chron. 23.24 27. compared with Chap. 28.13 19. Let us now go forward upon this ground It is little or rather not at all questionable but that Salvation simply or any the inferiour degrees in glory may be attained at much lower rates of Sanctity Zeal Faithfulness c. than those that are more sublime and nearer unto Christ himself This besides that it is rational and worthy belief of it self may be proved above all contradiction from the answer which Christ gave unto the Sons of Zebedee when they desired of him to sit the one on his right hand the other on his left in his Kingdom Ye know not saith he what ye ask meaning that they did not know or not consider upon how arduous and difficult terms or services those high places were to be obtained as appears by what follows Are ye able to drink of the Cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with the Baptism that I am baptized with Evidently implying that those great dignities which they desired were not so much as to be thought of with expectation but only by persons who were endued with a sufficient strength of Faith and Love to glorifie God by the deepest sufferings Yea it appears from the words of his reply to their Answer wherein they had said unto him They were able viz. to drink of his Cup c. that simple Martyrdom it self without other qualifications of Excellency and Worth in conjunction with it was not able to reach the height of these places For are not his words these Ye shall drink indeed of my Cup and be baptized with the Baptism that I am baptized with But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give but unto those for whom it is prepared of my Father Mat. 20.23 of the rendring and meaning of which latter words we spake formerly in this Reason Let us now advance a step further upon the ground on which we stand If Salvation simply or an entrance
increated Spirit or whether a created Spirit Many of you that are present I suppose know that there is an Antitrinitarian Spirit that hath broken prison of late and gotten abroad amongst as very busie in making Proselytes And as in the daies of Old this Spirit laboured to fill the World with this Doctrine That only one of the Three which John as you heard saith are one viz. He that is known unto us by the name of the Father is truly God And that the other two the Son and the Holy Ghost or the Spirit are but the Father's Creatures receiving though very excellent yet only finite and limited Being from him Wherefore as Moses said unto Aaron Num. 16.46 There is wrath gone out from the Lord the Plague is begun and hereupon wisheth him to go quickly unto the Congregation to make attonement for them Even so the Plague of this most dangerous Errour we speak of being begun amongst us already and several being intangled and insnared by it It therefore concerns those who are in a special manner intrusted with the great concernments both of God and men and upon whose shoulders it lieth more especially to contend for the truth I say it concerns them to lay about them with all wisdom and faithfulness in order to the convincing gainsayers or the Adversaries of this Truth We do not intend at present to speak any thing directly and particularly for the vindication of the God-head of the Second Person The Name by which he is best known unto us is Christ But only to plead the cause of him whom we with the ancient Christians call the Third Person in the Trinity or the Holy Ghost and briefly from the Scriptures to demonstrate him to be an infinite and uncreated Spirit and truly God Amongst very many passages as well in the Old as in the New Testament which with greatest evidence demonstrate the Holy Ghost to be God we shall only insist upon some few which we judge to be most clear and convincing Exod. 4.12 Jehovah translated Lord speaketh thus to Moses Now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say From hence it appears that it is only proper for Jehovah or him that is God to be in the mouth of the Prophets and to teach them what to say Add hereunto that which we have Num. 12.6 And he said hear now my words If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord or I Jehovah will make my self known unto him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream Now most evident it is from hence that he who spake by the Prophets and other Holy men of God as the Apostles was true Jehovah true God And hence it was that when the Prophets were about to deliver any Message to the People in the Name of God they commonly used this Preface Thus saith Jehovah or the word of Jehovah that Jehovah spake unto them or appeared unto them or the like places of this kind are without number in the Writings of the Prophets And the Apostle himself Heb. 1.1 expresly saith That God in times past spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets Now the Lord Christ himself affirmeth That it is the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost that thus speaketh in men Take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father speaketh in you Mat. 10.19 Therefore now if it was God that spake by the Prophets then and is interpreted by Christ to be the Holy Ghost then Jehovah or the Lord in the Old Testament is the Spirit or the Holy Ghost in the New And the Apostle Peter expresly affirmeth that it was the Spirit of Christ that spake in the Prophets 1 Pet. 1.11 And elsewhere he saith that Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 Thus David also a little before his departure The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue The God of Israel said the Rock of Israel spake to me 2 Sam. 23.2 And so Ezek. 2.2 And the Spirit entred into me when he spake unto me So that evident it is from these Scriptures diligently compared and laid together that the Holy Ghost who is from place to place said to have spoke unto the Prophets and Holy men of God was none other but Jehovah God himself Another place may be Lev 19.1 2. where Jehovah is said to have spake unto Moses saying Speak unto all the Congregation of the Children of Israel and say unto them Ye shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy Now he that spake these words unto Moses and ordered all these Ceremonies is in the New Testament said to be the Holy Ghost Heb. 9.8 The Holy Ghost this signifying c. Yet again Lev. 26.12 And I will walk among you and be your God and ye shall be my people compared with 1 Cor. 6.19 2 Cor. 6.16 1 Cor. 3.16 In all these places you shall find that the Saints in their Holy Assemblies are said to be the Temple of God and that God is said to be there and to walk amongst them Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 Cor. 3.16 So again ver 17. For the Temple of God is holy which Temple ye are 1 Cor. 6.19 What know ye not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost c 2 Cor. 6.16 What agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols For ye are the Temple of the living God c. Now these persons you see in whom God is said to dwell are said to be the Temple of the Holy Ghost And that God that dwelleth amongst them is the Holy Ghost Deut. 9.8 Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord so that the Lord was angry with you compared with Isa 63.10 But they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit That which in the former place is termed a provoking the Lord unto wrath so that he was angry Is in the latter by the Evangelical Prophet termed a vexing of his holy Spirit Psal 95.7 8. The Psalm begins thus Come let us rejoyce unto Jehovah And soon after ver 7. To day if ye will hear his voice c. He that contested with and complained of the People in the Wilderness was true Jehovah as appears also from several other Scriptures And they tempted God in the Desart Psal 106.14 and Psal 78.18 Yet the Apostle Heb. 3.7 plainly affirms that it was the Holy Ghost that was tempted wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts c. So that you see by these and many other such like places which might be readily produced if need were that he called Jehovah the Lord of Hosts in the Old Testament is called the Holy Ghost in the New Yet again Isa 6.9 10. The Prophet in the beginning of
this Chapter seeth in a Vision the Lord Jehovah sitting on a high Throne with Seraphims about it Afterwards about the ninth and tenth verses he signifies unto them the obstinacy and obduration of the Jews whereupon the Prophet had a Message from the Lord Jehovah to declare unto this People which was this Make the heart of this people fat c. Now the Apostle Paul plainly affirms Acts 28.25 That it was the Holy Ghost by the Prophet Isaiah that had foretold this their obstinacy and obduration Yet once more Isa 48.16 And now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me He here clearly attributes the same act of mission or sending unto the Spirit of God which he attributes unto God the Father himself He doth not say that God sent him with his Spirit or furnished or filled with his Spirit but his Spirit joyned in the same act of sending Lastly Jer. 31.31 Behold the daies come saith the Lord Jehovah that I will make a new Covenant c. compared with Heb. 10.15 Against these Testimonies produced from the Old Testament Sect. 2 to prove the Deity of the Holy Ghost and the management of them in order thereunto the Spirit which contradicteth this Doctrine hath this exception in general to disable the validity of them viz. That though the same things be ascribed in the New Testament to the Holy Ghost which are attributed to Jehovah or God himself in the Old for this indeed is the common sinew of these proofs yet saith this Spirit this proveth not that the Holy Ghost is God because the same things the same actions wherein God and the Creature joyn may be attributed either to the one or the other and are in Scripture sometimes attributed to the one and sometimes to the other For instance because the converting and saving of men are actions wherein God and the Creature man as well the Minister of the Gospel as the person himself who is converted do co-operate and act joyntly therefore these actions or effects are ascribed sometimes to the one and sometimes to the other As conconversion or turning of men is ascribed unto God Jer. 31.18 Psal 85.4 c. To the Minister and others instrumental in the conversion of men Dan. 12.3 Jam. 5.20 To the persons themselves converted Ezek. 18.30 2 Kings 23.25 So the act of saving is ascribed unto God 2 Tim. 1.9 Tit. 3.5 And yet unto men also 1 Tim. 4.16 Jam. 5.20 c. So again to give another instance Jehovah or God himself is said to have brought the Children of Israel out of Aegypt Exod. 20.2 and in very many places besides Yet Moses also is said to have brought them forth likewise because he joyned with God and was subservient unto him in the Action Exod. 3.10 Num. 16.13 In like manner say they who deny the Holy Ghost to be God that the same things are ascribed to Jehovah God in the Old Testament which are ascribed to the Holy Ghost in the New yet doth it not prove the Holy Ghost to be God but only that the Holy Ghost is subservient unto God or hath part and fellowship in these actions which he may have though he be a creature To all which I reply That though one and the same Action may be ascribed to several Agents really yea and specifically distinct the one from the other as God and the Creature are when they have a joynt Agency in the Action yet it doth not follow from hence but that the same Action may be ascribed in several places to one and the same Agent under different names and appellations or that because that Action which in the Old Testament is expresly ascribed unto Jehovah or God is ascribed to the Holy Ghost in the New therefore the Holy Ghost must needs be a Creature and not the same Jehovah with him to whom it is ascribed elsewhere As because he that is said to have reigned in Josiahs stead is called Jehoahaz 2 Kings 23.30 So again 2 Chron 36.2 it doth not follow that therefore it was not the same person who is called Shallum Jer. 22.11 and here said to have reigned in Josiahs stead also So again because the same act of arising and following Christ upon his call which is ascribed unto Matthew Mat. 9.9 is ascribed unto Levi Mar. 2.14 it doth not follow that therefore Matthew and Levi must needs be two distinct persons In like manner it doth not follow that because the the same things which are ascribed unto Jehovah or God in the Old Testament are ascribed unto the Holy Ghost in the New that therefore Jehovah and the Holy Ghost must needs be two distinct Agents If it be here replied and said yea but this Reply of yours doth all this while but only prove that Jehovah in the Old Testament may be the same Agent with the Holy Ghost in the New notwithstanding the diversity of Names used in the one and in the other but this doth not prove that they are or must of necessity be the same For the reason formerly mentioned viz. because one and the same Action may be and oft is in the Scripture attributed to two several Agents specifically distinct To this I reply First If it be proved and granted that the Holy Ghost so called in the New Testament may be the same with Jehovah in the Old this reacheth so far at least as to abate the confidence of that opinion which denieth them to be the same or that the Holy Ghost is truly God For if it be true that the Holy Ghost may be Jehovah or true God then is not the contrary demonstrable by any argument or proof whatsoever viz. that he is not God For that which is demonstrably so or so such or such there is no possibility that it should be altered or not so or such as it is demonstrated to be So that though it should be granted that the exception made against the proofs insisted upon to prove the Holy Ghost to be God doth so far take off the validity of them that they do not conclude the Affirmative viz. that the Holy Ghost is God yet do they remain in so much strength this exception notwithstanding as to conclude that He may be God and consequently that the Negative which saith He is not God may be false If it be here said it is true your reply wherein you prove that the Scriptures sometimes ascribe the same action in several places to the same Person or Agent under several names this proves that the Holy Ghost in the New Testament having the same things ascribed unto him which Jehovah in the Old may notwithstanding this variety of name or appellation be the same with him But this proves not but that upon some other account and for other reasons it may be impossible that they should be the same As he that is in 2 Kings 23.30 called Jehoahas and he that is in Jer. 22.11 called Shallum may notwithstanding this diversity of appellation
the hands of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost So that you see the instance of Moses is quite of another nature For they were not baptized with any such Baptism as to relyeupon Moses for the remission of sins for Moses was not able to to give it But that for which they were baptized unto Moses he was able to do for them Therefore for any man to argue that because the Israelites were baptized unto Moses in such a Baptism that therefore it follows from hence That Baptism which is for the Remission of sins was enjoyned to be administred unto men upon the same terms and no other is to reason at a very low rate of understanding And the truth is that all that hath been argued from the Scripture in hand is so plain and full to the business that there is no rising up against it But though things be never so clear yet there may be shifts and evasions and such colours which persons of light and desultory judgments are not able to see through We know a silly Fly is caught in a Spiders Web even so men of light judgments and who are unstable unballanced and that are not grounded in the truth will easily be turned aside by things that have but a very slight and slender apparence and will be carried away with every puff of new Doctrine whereas men whose Judgments and Consciences are stable will not easily be shaken or removed and therefore the Premises considered we ought greatly to take heed and to look over and over again and again such things as we do receive into our Judgments especially such things which are contrary to the Church of God and have been generally disowned by the generality of sober and learned men amongst them Now howsoever though their owning of some particular truth be no demonstrative proof of the truth thereof and therefore cannot bind the Conscience Yet notwithstanding whatsoever shall be opposed thereunto men had need have Argument upon Argument yea the most pregnant and clear grounds that may be before they give up their Judgments unto it But this by the way A fourth Testimony upon the same account from the New Testament shall be those words of our Saviour Sect. 8 Joh. 14.26 compared with Joh. 15.26 But the Comforter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance what soever I have said unto you In the latter place thus But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me Here are several particulars considerable for the evincing of this truth that the Holy Ghost is God and more especially these 1. The very Name or Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Comforter or as some the Advocate here given to the Holy Ghost is no light Argument that he is truly God By the way to give notice of this once for all in the managing of the Controversie or Question in hand When we use the word God or truly God we do not mean any Creature whatsoever not any Angel or other to whom the Name or Appellation of God may by way of participation or possibly in some particular respect be found attributed in the Scriptures but the only true God and most high God or him that is God by Nature as the Scripture distinguisheth We judge it meet to give this Item for remembrance because those that are contrary minded in the business affirm and say that whilst we simply or only prove the Holy Ghost to be God we prove no more than what they grant and say with us For they grant and say also that the Holy Ghost is and may in a sense be truly God but that which they hold and teach is That he is not the most high God therefore that we may not be thought to prevaricate with the cause we undertake to plead and to prove no more than only to accommodate our Adversaries we desire to give notice that when we endeavoured hitherto to prove the Holy Ghost to be truly God by his being truly God we meant and intended his being the most High God not imagining that any person would have stumbled at such an expression or conceit that there should be any more true Gods than one and he the most High God And we suppose and this not upon light grounds that our proofs at least some of them held out accordingly and reached home to such a Conclusion And we desire to be so understood likewise for the future viz. That when we use the expression of the true God we intend none other but the only God by nature who is sometimes in Scripture termed the most High God Sed hoc obiter To return to the Scripture before us 1. We were saying unto you that the very Appellation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Comforter here attributed to the Holy Ghost is some intimation that he is truly God 1. We do not find this gracious Act or Work of comforting any where ascribed unto Angels but frequently unto God himself as well as unto men we shall not need to instance places for this It is indeed said Luke 22.43 that when the Lord Christ was in his Agony there appeared unto him an Angel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strengthening or in strengthening him not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comforting him And though it should be granted that there is but little if any difference at all between comforting and strengthening and that it is as proper a work for an Angel to comfort as to strengthen yet it is not improbable but that the Holy Ghost keepeth to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to comfort when it speaketh of God and of his comforting using some other word when he speaks of Angels and of comforts administred by them If it be replied that even when God is said to comfort it is not necessary to conceive that he doth it immediately by himself but it may be done by Angels ministerially and by God only Originally and Authoritatively To this I answer Though this be granted yet will it not disable the Argument in hand taken from the Scripture before us because that Office or work of comforting is here in special manner attributed to the Holy Ghost where he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Comforter This implies that how many ministerial or subordinate Comforters soever there are whether Angels or men yet there is one supreme who doth praesidere i. e. oversee order and direct the whole negotiation of comforting all the world over who issues forth Commissions unto and furnisheth with abilities and means for the work all those that are imployed in a ministerial way about it Now he that is capable of such a high and excellent dignity as this that is able to stand under the weight of such an important affair
which at one and the same time is to be expedited and put in execution in all the four winds of the Heaven in places without number and these very far distant one from another and to provide that the work should be done regularly and effectually in all these places at once must in reason upon a diligent consideration of the business be judged to be greater than any Creature to have an arm far more out stretched than any Angel in Heaven therefore cercainly our Saviours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Comforter here said to be the Holy Ghost must needs be greater than a finite Angel and consequently God himself even the most High God Nor is it pertinent or much to the purpose here to pretend that the business of temptation of tempting men and women unto sin is managed and that very effectually and with too much success all the World over at one and the same time and yet he that presideth in chief over the World is but a finite Creature and is styled in the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tempter Mat. 4.3 1 Thes 3.5 therefore why may not the work of Consolation be managed and carried on all the World over by an Angel or finite Spirit c. To this I answer 1. That there are many tempted and drawn away unto sin who are not tempted of the Devil Let no man saith James say when he is tempted I am tempted by God no let not every man when he is tempted say I am tempted of the Devil For God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man Nor doth the Devil tempt every man especially as oft as he committeth sin But every man i.e. the generality or far greater part of men is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed Jam. 1.13 14. And we know the Devil himself was tempted and drawn away with his own lust and enticed to the greatest impiety whilst yet there was no Tempter much more may men be tempted and drawn away by their own lusts So that the tempting of men all the World over at one and the same time doth not prove that therefore the Devil tempteth all the World over at the same time And the Devil himself confesseth in the Scriptures Job 1.7 that he compasseth the earth two and fre and walketh up and down in it And elsewhere it is said of him that he goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 Therefore the Devil is not present all the World over at the same time doing one thing or other either by himself or by inferiour Devils his subservient instruments But now the Holy Ghost whom our Saviour calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must of necessity be present all the World over where there is any comfort administred because no inferiour Comforter whether men themselves Ministers of God or others whether Angels or men can perform the work with effect or success without the presence and interposure of him that comforteth in chief Paul may plant and Apollo may water but it is God that giveth the encrease So then neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth but God that giveth the encrease 1 Cor. 3.6 7. Neither man nor Angel is any thing i. e. comparatively or able to effect any thing of any Evangelical import without the immediate or actual presence or interposure of God therefore if the Holy Ghost were not God he could not render the Word of God effectual in the hearts of men as to matter of spiritual Consolation and that he should be termed the Comforter and not be able to comfort authoritatively of and by himself or any otherwise than as men commissionated or delegated from God ministerially to comfort is most irrational and no waies worthy to be believed But some that are otherwise minded in the business in hand except against the English Translation for translating the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Comforter when as they should have translated it the Advoeate as they have done 1 Joh. 2.1 I reply 1. That to him that is weak the Grashopper is a burthen and he that is afraid of falling is apt to catch hold of every twig in his way though it hath little or nothing in it to keep him from falling For what will be gained to the adverse cause in case the learning and judgment of the Translators should be made to bow down at the feet of him who thus excepteth And if we should condemn the Comforter to justifie and set up the Advocate will the Advocate plead his cause who stands so much for him with more strength than the Comforter Doubtless not at all For if the Holy Ghost be an Advocate in such a sense of the word Advocate as Christ is which it seems is the sense contended for he must mediate and plead the cause of all the Saints on earth as he doth with God the Father and so must know the estates and conditions of all the Saints on earth respectively and particularly and consequently must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the knower or searcher of the heart Acts 1.24 Chap. 15.8 which is the incommunicable property of God Or if he doth not know the hearts of the Saints perfectly how shall he be able to perform the part of a worthy Advocate He that is a man's Advocate had need understand his cause perfectly Or 2. If he that excepteth against the said Translation would have the Holy Ghost an Advocate in some other sense of the word viz. because he pleads the cause of the Saints at the Tribunal of their own hearts and consciences and informs these Judges I mean the consciences of the Saints respectively such things relating to his Clients upon the account of which they ought to justifie and absolve them or else because he pleads the cause of the truth and innocency of their Christian Profession before the World and the Rulers thereof when they are called before them or questioned by them according to that of our Saviour It is not you that speak but the Holy Ghost that speaketh in you Mar. 10.20 Mar. 13.11 Luke 12.12 namely by way of Apology for the Christian Profession which you make Take I say the word Advocate in either of these significations and I think there is hardly a third imaginable except that of Christ his being an Advocate the Godhead of the Holy Ghost will be every whit as much countenanced and asserted either by the one or by the other applied to him as by being styled the Comforter Yea the truth is that is cannot well be conceived how or in what respect other than in one or both of these the Holy Chost should be called or understood a Comforter Therefore the Exceptor against the said Translation in seeking the change thereof is but like a sick man who conceits if he changes either his Chamber or his Bed he shall be better and find ease whereas the
Treatise is gravely and with solidity penned and worthy the perusal of those whose feer are taken in the snare of that Error or others remaining in any measure dis-satisfied about the Point Though the truth is they have as much reason to be dis-satisfied about their Christianity it self and whether Salvation is to be obtained by Jesus Christ and Faith in his bloud as to be dis-satisfied about the Holy Ghost being God We might argue the Deity of the Holy Ghost from other particulars observable Sect. 10 upon such an account from the said passages of Scripture lying yet before us As 1. That Christ saith of him that he should teach them all things 2. That he should bring to their remembrance all things that he had spake to them 3. That he proceedeth from God the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall but only glance at them First our Saviour undertakes for the Holy Ghost that when he comes he shall teach his Disciples all truth To be able to teach all truth is a Royalty too rich to be vested in any Creature it is most worthy God himself and meet only for him The Eph. 3.9 10. Angels learn many things from the Church and from the Min stry and Dispensation of the Gospel there And the Apostle Paul himself professeth of himself and the rest of his fellow Apostles 1 Cor. 13.9 who knew more than all the World besides of the mystery of Christ and of God that they knew but in part Therefore no Angel was in a capacity to teach them all things when as they themselves were in a condition to learn some things of them If it be demanded But how can these two stand together 1. That Christ should say unto the Apostles that the Holy Ghost should teach them all things and lead them into the way of all truth And yet 2. That Paul should say notwithstanding that they knew but in part Can he be said to know but in part who hath been taught all things or led into the way of all Truth I answer 1. That the all things which the Holy Ghost according to our Saviours Promise here was to teach the Disciples is to be restrained to the business in hand which is very frequent in Scripture and so such things as were necessary and meet for them to know in order to the performance of their Apostolical Office as well in teaching as in planting Churches and ordering the Government hereof For it was not for them to know the times and seasons which God had reserved in his own hand Nor doth it follow from hence either that the Holy Ghost was not able to teach them that restrained all things or that the teaching of this restrained all things should be no sufficient proof of the Holy Ghosts being God The former of these is evident enough from the common principle in reason God and Nature as they are not defective in things that be necessary so neither do they abound in things that be superfluous And therefore if the Apostles had no need of any further knowledge of any thing which did any waies conduce to the performance of their great Office as they were Apostles It is not to be conceived that the Holy Ghost should impart such things unto them which were not expedient for them to know The latter viz. That the teaching of that limited all things we speak of especially taken with that Clause that goeth along with it and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Joh. 14.26 is an Argument no waies defective in proof that the Holy Ghost who was to do all these things is truly God this I say is evident from hence For 1. He that shall be able to teach all that was necessary for the Apostles to know for the discharge of their great Office must be supposed to know all the heights and depths of the Scriptures all things that are contained and comprehended there For doubtless there is nothing in the Word of God but what was fitting and necessary for the Apostles to know and understand As namely the sitting and applying of all the Figures Shadows and Ceremonies under the Law to and with the Gospel and so likewise to know and understand all obscure Prophesies for otherwise they might have been foyled and intangled by their Adversaries which would have been matter of prejudice to them in the fulfilling of their Office Now then to be able to do this certainly doth prove sufficiently that he must needs be God For 1 Cor. 2.1 1. saith the Apostle what man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him It is the Spirit within a man who knoweth all the motions of the heart all the Purposes Counsels Hopes Sorrows c. No man knows all these things but the spirit of a man which is within him which is intimous to him and upon the matter himself Even so after the same manner we may say no man knows the things of God but the spirit of God The Spirit God searcheth the deep things of God As the Spirit of a man is privy to the most secret things of a man even so the Spirit of God is privy to the secrets of God So there is no man and consequently no Spirit besides no Creature no Angel though never so great and near unto God in point of Office and Ministry that is able to search the deep things of God but only the Spirit of God which is intimately acquainted with the deep things of God 2. He that was able to bring so the Apostles remembrance whatsoever Christ had said unto them must neds be God because he must know their hearts and their thoughts and what of themselves they did remember without him and withall to know what was worn or blotted out of their memories For I suppose the meaning is not that when the Spirit comes he should be a Remembrancer unto them of such things which they remembred already and therefore it supposes that the Holy Ghost of whom it is said he should remember them of all things that Christ had formerly spoken unto them did know the state of their minds and inward parts and that he knew what things they had or did remember and what things they had forgotten and lost and accordingly shouldsupply them Which is another consideration that doth argue that certainly this Spirit of God this samje great Remembrancer of the Apostles can be no other but God 3. We might also argue from that other Clause where our Saviour describes the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God there being no plurality of Holy Ghosts to be one individual Spirit of Truth And then denotes his Process which proceeds from or out of the Father For both words should be put in from the Father and proceeds out of the Father after an ineffable and inconceivable manner Now if any such Character as this or any near to it can be found to be given of
any Angel or Spirit that he proceedeth out of or from God the Father then haply this will not prove the Holy Ghost to be one and the same God with the Father that is the most high God For as for that word indeed our Adversaries do marvellously please and gratifie their weak Disciples with it Sect. 11 falling foul and uttering evil speeches against several kinds of expressions which the Scriptures themselves speaking of God as three and one do invite and lead men unto Now because these things cannot be explained nor made sutable to the minds of men by any thing found in the Creature that should answer them they fall foul upon them and say that they are nothing but devices tricks and subtilties of men which they say are contrary to Principles of Reason and Understanding Whereas the truth is they are things that are most rational and of an elevating nature unto those who understand them whose Element they are who are versed in the traversing of such curious questions and mysterious speculations I say they are most rational unto them and admit of the most curious debates But that which in the general may satisfie the meanest capacity concerning the Three in One we may thus conceive That according to the Nature Essence or simple Being of every thing whatsoever such likewise is the Modus or manner of that respective Being For there is nothing that hath a simple Being but it hath a Modus or a particular manner of Being according to which it is or hath its subsistence Now this Modus or manner of Being or subsistence take it where you will it alwaies follows the Being as the shadow doth the body or substance whose it is For Essence or Being is one thing but the manner of its subsistence this is another If you cannot so well consent unto this at the first view yet you will find upon a diligent enquiry that the Notion is true viz. That every thing hath a manner of Being as well as a Being it self and that this Modus or manner of Being is something which is distinct from the Essence or Being it self Now then look as things are more excellent in their simple Essence and Nature so have they a more excellent Modus or manner of Being than such things whose Nature and Essence are beneath and less noble and excellent in the order of Creatures So now if we shall carry up this Rule or Principle unto God and apply it unto his Essence and Being it will be no manner of offence to any man's Reason and Understanding that he should not be able to comprehend how or after what manner the Divine Nature and Essence doth subsist Because his Essence is so infinitely above and differing from all created Essences or Beings Otherwise we shall conceive rudely of God and pollute his Nature and bring him down from what he is and mingle him amongst finite and limited Creatures if we shall seek for any parallel or likeness of his Being And if so then we must conceive that the manner of his Being is of the same kind and commensurable unto his Being it self A peculiar and appropriate manner of subsisting which is not to be parallelled in the subsistence of any finite Being whatsoever And besides we have the help and light of Scriptures to help us in this namely to find out what manner of subsistence this is that is One in Three This I say we have from the Scriptures And though some men do undertake to make it to be nothing but what is very agreeable to the Principles of Reason and Understanding that is in man to cnceive that there should be such a subsistence in the Divine Nature Yet for this we shall not undertake nor advance so high in such a mystery as this is Only this is clear and the foundation is as a Rock under our feet that there must be a peculiar Modus or manner of Tubsistence appropriate to the Divine Essence or Being which doth not parallel nor cannot be matched by the whole Creation And that it may be thus as well as any otherwise I think is as clear as the other For whatsoever you will imagine or whatsoever your Understandings should project unto you to be the peculiar manner of this subsistence most certain it is that it will be as hard to explain and bring it down to the capacity and apprehension of men as the Being it self which is infinite or as the subsistence of Three in One. Sect. 12 I shall only add a few more Testimonies from the Scriptures wherein the Deity or Godhead of the Holy Ghost shineth as light at the noon day and then proceed to shew the fallacies and other weaknesses of those pretenses wherein our Adversaries rejoyce so much as if they were Arguments above Answer and so put an end to our present debate The first Scripture shall be Joh. 20.22 And when he had said this he breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained First When Christ breathing upon his Disciples said unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Is it tolerable to imagine that his meaning should be Receive ye an Angel or the supreme Angel That by the Holy Ghost here he doth not cannot mean the gifts of the Holy Ghost so called but the gift of the Holy Ghost himself appears 1. From the nature of the Symbol or outward sign which Christ useth in communicating or giving the Holy Ghost unto them viz. That inflation or breathing upon them The Holy Ghost himself is elsewhere compared unto the wind which is a kind of breathing or moving of the air and fitly so may be partly because his manner of proceeding from the Father and the Son is by way of spiration or breathing i.e. The ineffable and inexplicable manner of his proceeding amongst all created things or things intelligible unto men is best resembled by or comes nearest unto a spiration or breathing Partly also because as the original or first cause and so likewise that which becomes of the wind or that which is done by the wind is very secret unto men So is the first spring or original of the Spirits entring or coming into men as likewise the end which the Spirit makes with men into whom he cometh are great secrets hidden mysteries unto the generality of men very hard and dissicult and of an abstruse definition and demonstration This our Saviour Joh. 3.8 describes by the nature of the wind The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the Spirit It is very likely that God made this same material World in such a shape as he hath now done and such and such Creatures as now are made And so such Laws for these Creatures to act and move by and
and cut off their Garments to the middle and so sent them away That which Hanun did in this case reflected upon David and was an affront put upon him but the particular things done unto his Messengers cannot be truly said to be done unto David Hanun cannot be said to have shaved off the one half of David's beard or to have cut off David's Garment in the middle Take one instance more Paul styles himself 2 Cor. 6.4 and those who preach the Gospel the Ministers of God and elsewhere 2 Cor. 5.20 Embassadours meaning of God for Christ i. e. for Christ's sake to procure acceptance for him with men Now in case these Ministers or Embassadours of God be evil intreated by men in the World in one kind or other the evil that is done unto them God accounts as done to himself But however not in respect of the specifical or particular nature of the evils done to them but in the general as being highly affronted When men killed the Apostles as our Saviour foretold they would God doth not look upon himself as killed by them but highly injured and despised In like manner in case the Holy Ghost in Peter or other holy men were only a Messenger sent from God and men should lye unto him yet they cannot in this respect with any tolerable congruity or truth of speech be said to lye unto God but only in lying unto his Messenger to have dealt wickedly and unworthily by him So that what our Adversary layeth in by way of answer or reply to these passages of Scripture yet before us when it comes to be fifted and narrowly searched into vanisheth into smoke Another Text of Scripture Sect. 14 evincing above all contradiction the Deity of the Holy Ghost is 1 Joh. 5.7 For there are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You see it is expresly said that these three the Father together with the Son and the Holy Ghost are one If they be one then one in Nature one in Essence one in Subsistence otherwise there could not be that unity in any sense Now this could not be expressed in more emphaticalness of words and which better bear such a Notion as this Here again we have an evasion as indeed there is no end of these things Satan is an old Fox and hath his devices to keep men from the knowledge of all truths but more especially such which lie any whit remote from the common and ordinary thoughts of men such that men must take a long journey to come at such are these which we are now treating of Now Satan takes the slightest occasion to colour over and bedawb them knowing that there is not one man among many that will be willing to take the pains or undergo any hard travel to wipe off the colours that Satan puts on them And as in long journeys there are many bottoms and hills and Wood-sides and there you are in danger of Thieves and Robbers So there are some Doctrines some matters in the Christian Religion where you are to expect and hear of this great Destroyer of the Souls of men lying in wait to rob them of their spiritual Treasure by labouring to confound the World according to the state of things there for he well knows the state of it and how it goes from day to day But Now as to the business in hand several exceptions there are which being searched into vanish into nothing but air As one while the Adversary pretends that these words are wanting in some Greek Copies Now for that when there was no Printing in the World and consequently Copies of Books especially such great Books as the Scripture when it was written and translated they were but few in comparison of what they are now and if there were any Sect or any great Faction of men As for instance of the Arians when they spread the whole Christian World in a manner over like a Deluge Now during such a time the men of this Notion being very many they very well might and in all probability they did corrupt and falsifie Copies and that is the ground that you hear sometimes that one Copy reads it thus and a second thus and a third thus and a fourth different from all the former And it is not likely but that there should be such difference and variety of Copies We know that the Papists now have a great deal of the Christian World under their Jurisdiction and how they are wont and that of latter times the fruit is fresh in memory to take and to throw out what they thought good out of the Notes and Copies of the Fathers wherein we may see the very footsteps of the Pope There are Books extant which they call Indices expurgatorii which are Indexes or Tables of what Sentences are left out and what are put in and these are great Books and there are two or three several kinds of them Even so it might very well be that men of this Opinion I mean the Arians whilst it spread it self might expunge and put out such passages and such Texts of Scripture as these which they saw did bear so hard and with so mighty and strong hand upon their opinion but this Clause is found in one of the ancientest of all Writers that we know of in Cyprian who lived about two hundred and forty years after Christ Now then seeing we find that in his writings which are more ancient than all those Copies where it is wanting it is at least a very probable Argument that it was in the original Copies Again another Pretext he hath against this viz. in that the Apostle saith in ver 8. that these three agree in one meaning only that they did testifie and assert the same truth Not that they are one in Essence but as I said that they agree namely in their Testimony they avouch one and the same truth So now saith the Adversary the other three which bear record in Heaven are only one in their Testimony joyning together in asserting one and the same thing but it doth not follow from hence that these three are one and the same in Nature and Essence For answer to this we must know that the Apostle John doth make a very apparent and express difference in the expressing the one and the other As in the former verse where he speaks of three that bear Record in Heaven He doth not say that these three agree in one but that these are one but when he speaks of the three that bear witness on Earth He doth not say that they are one but that they agree in one So that as I said here is a signal and manifest difference between the expression of that unity or Oneness which is attributed to the three former and that which is ascribed unto the three latter Neither can the former union be understood of agreement and consent only unless
and Power is in every kind the same with the Father and the Sons and as Original as theirs But 2. If the Holy Ghost hath only a derived and communicated Power in the Sense of the Objection to give Grace and Peace i. e. a power depending on the Will and Pleasure of God the Father limited by Instructions Provisoes or the like then John's wish or desire of Grace and Peace from him for the Churches was but a Wish at Rovers without substantial ground or bottom For how should John know whether the Holy Ghost had it in his Commission or no to confer Grace and Peace upon those on whose behalf he wished or desired it 3. And lastly for this It is no waies probable that John should spread such a snare of danger before men as this to joyn a Creature with his Creator blessed for ever in so great an Interest or Power as this to confer Grace and Peace upon his Fellow Creatures and so minister an occasion unto them to adore and worship him as God And this seems yet much more improbable if we consider that John was guided and directed by the Holy Ghost himself in drawing up and penning this Passage as well as the rest of the Book of the Revelation For it can at no hand be imagined within the limits or bounds of Reason that the Holy Ghost in case he were a Creature and not truly and compleatly God should be the Author of such representations of himself from place to place in the Scriptures and particularly in the Passage now before us whereby men should be so dangerously ensnared and so effectually tempted to Idolatry I mean to conceive and judge him to be God and to worship him accordingly The Angels we find in sundry places as likewise the Apostles and Holy men to have been so tender at this Point so jealous of preserving the Rights and Priviledges of Heaven entire that when Divine Honours or Worship were tendered unto them they presently rejected them chusing rather to discover their nakedness unto those that were about to worship them and to profess and acknowledge themselves their Fellow Creatures than to accept of any thing from them which was above their Line and of right appertaining to God only Several Instances hereof we might produce being near at hand but because I presume them sufficiently known unto you already I shall not insist upon them So that questionless if the Holy Ghost were not God the first born of things it is incredible unto me and I suppose will be so to any considering man that such things should by his order motion and direction be delivered unto the World by the Penmen of the Scriptures concerning him which do so strongly and with such effectualness of perswasion tempt the hearts and thoughts of men to adore reverence and worship him as God That a Reprobate Angel or Devil who hath nothing to lose nor whereby to make himself more miserable or accursed than he is should seek and project the ruine and destruction of men or out of the pride of his heart should entice men to fall down before him and worship him as a God is no matter of wonder at all But that the Holy Ghost being as our Adversaries notion him not only an Elect Angel but the greatest and highest of all Angels in Dignity Honour and Blessedness that He should dash his foot against such a stone as this or should cast such a snare of death upon the World upon the poor and weak Generation of the Children of men as to turn himself into the similitude and likeness of the most High God himself as he hath done from place to place in the Scriptures so inviting tempting and alluring men to commit spiritual Fornication with him to worship him as God is a Notion or Saying that a man had need to borrow the Faith of such a man who hath abjured all Principles of Reason and Understanding yea and of common sense it self to believe it If it be pleaded and objected on the other hand Sect. 17 that if the Holy Ghost be indeed and in truth God the most High God then it will argue that which is more inconsistent with his nature viz. That He should make or which is the same cause to be made such obscure dark and imperfect representations of himself which tend only to keep the World in suspense whether he be God or no and to minister occasion of doubtful Disputations yea and of troublesome and unchristian Contests and hearts amongst men and thus shall seem rather to envy the spiritual peace and prosperity of the Souls of men by hiding so great and important a truth from their eyes than to desire the promotion or advancement of it c. there being no express Text or Testimony of Scripture which affirmeth him to be God To this I answer 1. That it is proper to God i. e. sutable to his Nature Interest and Design which he drives in the World to conceal a thing as Solomon speaks but it is proper for a Creature Angel or Man to search a thing out to make a secret thing plain and evident The passage of Solomon is this It is the glory of God to conceal a thing but the honour of a King is to search out a matter Prov. 25.2 Psal 111.2 If it be demanded How in what cases or respects it is the glory of God to conceal a thing I answer 1. That concealing of a thing which is here said to be the glory of God is not meant of such a concealing or hiding of a thing whereby it becomes absolutely impossible to be discovered or found out by men The concealing of a thing after such a manner or upon such terms cannot well be conceived how it should turn to any account of glory unto God For as David speaketh of the dead Psal 88.10 Shall the dead arise and praise thee or wilt thou shew wonders to or amongst the dead So we may say that things concealed after such a manner are absolutely dead and so cannot praise or glorifie God therefore that concealing of a thing of which Solomon speaks is such a concealing which removes it to a certain distance out of the way of the common or ordinary thoughts or apprehensions of men but yet disposeth of it so or putteth it into such a posture or condition that men by stadious search or diligent enquiry may come to discover and find it out as the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 3.16 speaking of the Writings of Paul saith there were some things in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hard to be understood but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impossible to be understood In like manner there are things thus covered scattered here and there up and down the Scriptures Now such a concealing or hiding of a thing as this is said to be the glory of God either because such a veil or covering as this preserves the reverence and esteem of things that are covered Or else 2.
Because it makes for his glory that the Creature should labour and travel for the knowledge of divine mysteries and secrets this argues the exceeding worth of them But whatsoever the particular reason be why the concealing of a thing shovld be the glory of God there is little question but it being his glory that he practiseth it and doth conceal things and makes only some sparing discoverie of them And this is the condition of very many Mysteries and divine Truths in the Scriptures viz. to be concealed and as it were removed out of the way of mens ordinary thoughts and apprehensions yea and to be so situate or disposed of in respect of their discovery or finding out that without much application unto God in waies of Righteousness Love Humility Prayer c. they should not be apprehended or discovered by any man This our Saviour himself plainly signifieth Joh. 7.17 If any man will do his will i.e. the will of God he shall know of the Doctrine meaning which he taught whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self Which saying clearly supposeth that men who are negligent or remiss in doing the Will of God in living holily righteously and soberly may very possibly never come to see or understand many things contained and held forth in the Doctrine of Christ and of the Scriptures For it would be a meer impertinency to limit the attaining of such or such a thing to the performance of a certain condition in case the thing thus limited might be obtained without the performance of this condition So then it is no competent argument against the Holy Ghosts being God to say that he is no where plainly and expresly called God or affirmed to be God It is sufficient to prove him to be God in that such things are spoken of him and attributed to him which to a judgment or understanding spiritually enlightened do by natural and clear consentience evince him to be God We are not to appoint or teach the Holy Ghost how or after what manner or with what words or Phrases he shall express the things of God things of a spiritual nature But we are to be content with such expressions and discoveries of them as himself pleaseth and judgeth meet to vouchsafe unto us and to embrace for Truth not only that which lieth in the Superficies and first face of the Letter but also that which lieth deep down yea and whatsoever is consequentially comprehended in the Letter As when God himself said to Moses Exod. 3.6 I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob here is no mention in the words no jot or title in the Letter of any such thing as the Resurrection of the dead yet our Saviour proves the Resurrection of the dead from these words yea and blames the Sadduces that were so perfunctory in reading and perusing the Scriptures as not to observe it Mar. 12.26 Have ye not read saith he in the Book of Moses how in the bush God spake unto him saying I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob ye therefore do greatly err not knowing the Scriptures clearly implying that however the Resurrection of the dead was not in the Letter or surface of the words yet it lay deeper and was within the reach of these words and might have been wrought out of them by consideration and strength of discourse And because they the Sadduces did not do this they fell into a most dangerous and horrid Error to deny the Resurrection of the dead as if there had been no such Doctrine taught in the Scriptures whereas the Lord Christ himself clearly and with evidence of deduction findeth it in that one passage of God to Moses 2. That is further considerable in reference to the business in hand that the Scriptures were indited and drawn up in that frame of words and Phrases in which we now have them by the Holy Ghost himself This is confessed by our Adversaries themselves now then in this respect it is the less probable that he should broadly and plainly and as it were in expressness of terms any where affirm himself to be God or any otherwise inform the World of this great Mystery or Secret than by secret intimations or insinuations from whence this might be collected or made out by the Reasons and Consciences of men it is a Rule prescribed by himself unto men Prov. 27.2 Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth A stranger and not thine own lips It may be less marvel unto us if we see this Law practised and submitted unto by the Law-giver himself yea it may be observed and worth our observation it is how those Three that are One as John speaketh the three Persons in the Trinity as Christians have been wont hitherto to express themselves are wont to express and with plainness of terms to give honour one unto another as the Apostle exhorteth Christians to do one by another Rom. 12.10 and commonly either to wave or at most with some kind of obscurity and remoteness of expression to assert or insist upon that which is their supreme glory respectively Thus we find the Lord Christ very frequently plainly and without Parable giving Testimony unto the Godhead of the Father and plainly enough too unto the Godhead of the Holy Ghost as in some passages already insisted upon so in several others also But speaking at least ordinarily at an under-rate concerning himself and his own transcendent dignity veiling this with such words which must be narrowly looked into and dextrously interpreted before such a thing can be found in them We know the common style which he observed speaking of himself was that he was the Son of Man he no where expresly calleth himself the Son of God but by consequence only and so these words of his are to be understood Joh. 10.36 Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the World thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God His meaning is not that he had at any time in so many words said unto them that he was the Son of God but only that he had spoken such things unto them from which they gathered it and that truly in a like sense the charge of the High Priest is to be taken likewise or otherwise it will be found untrue For saith he Mat. 27.43 he said I am the Son of God but this was true interpretatively and constructively only as hath been said Yet both the Father and the Holy Ghost do expresly and as we use to say totidem verbis cast this honour upon him This is my beloved Son saith the Father in a voice from Heaven Mat. 3.17 in whom I am well pleased So Acts 13.33 Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee The Holy Ghost doth not only in Psalm 110. which we shall not need to mention give this honourable Testimony unto him but in
who are sent unto us by God to preach the Gospel it is so much the more reasonable that we should hearken unto God in them and we deserve and have cause accordingly to expect to meet with so much the greater punishment from God if we do it not The reason hereof is because the more holy the Messengers which God sendeth unto us are and the more they have of himself in them so much the nearer they are unto him and proportionably so much the more honourable Hence it is that our Saviour insists upon it as an aggravation of the sin of the Scribes and Pharisees that they did not repent and believe under the Ministry of John when as he came unto them in a way of righteousness Mat. 21.32 which also he mentioneth as contributing towards the repentance and believing of the Publicans and Harlots upon his Preaching Much more might be added from the Scriptures for the confirmation of the Principle and ground you are now upon But let us work the business we have in hand by the Rule we have now explained and found straight The Question is Sect. 19 which Opinion of the two either that which affirmeth the Holy Ghost to be God truly and essentially God Or that which denieth him to be so and affirmeth him to be a Creature be of the truest and most effectual calculation for the advancement of Godliness in the World Examine them as to this Point and try them by the Rule now specified and you will easily discern to which of the two the preheminence in this kind belongeth It hath been manifest unto us by the Scripture that the greater and more honourable Agent God shall send unto men to perswade them unto Godliness to transact Affairs of any such kind or import with them especially the greatness of this Agent being made known and apprehended by men he is so much the more likely to prevail Men being naturally more inclined and disposed to mind and consider what is spoken unto them by Persons of Eminency and greatest worth than what is spoken by those of an inferiour Line Now then whether he that is really naturally and substantially God be greater in Wisdom Worth and Dignity than a Creature take it where the glory of Creation shineth with the greatest brightness is I presume no man's question every man without any hesitancy or debate in himself or doubtfulness of disputation subscribing the preheminence of Divine Being in all manner of perfection of dignity and worth above the Creature If it be thus then it is a clear case that that Opinion or Doctrine which affirmeth the Holy Ghost sent by God the Father abroad into the World unto and into the hearts and consciences of men to negotiate with them about the great business of Godliness to be truly and substantially God equal with God the Father who sendeth him is a Doctrine of a far richer and of a more glorious tendency hath ten times more spirit and life in it to promote and carry on the cause and interest of Godliness in the World than the contrary Doctrine hath I mean that which denieth the Holy Ghost to be God and affirmeth him to be a Creature only We might in the second place justifie and make good the same tenour of the comparison between the two Doctrines by another Principle and ground also which upon such an Argument as this might be framed That Doctrine which rendreth the encouragement countenance or reward promised by God unto those that shall live godly greater and more desirable is a Doctrine of a more forceable and effectual tendency towards the promotion of Godliness than that which maketh all these less and less desirable This Proposition I suppose needeth no further proof or clearing being built upon this unquestionable Principle That a great reward promised upon the same or like terms of security is a greater encouragement a more effectual motive unto action or work than a lesser Therefore I go on and assume thus But that Doctrine which affirmeth the Holy Ghost to be God rendereth the encouragement countenance and reward promised by God unto those that shall live godly much greater and more desirable than that which denieth him to be God therefore that is the Doctrine that hath the most effectual tendency for the advancement of Godliness The Reason of this latter Proposition is likewise near at hand and is this viz. Because God hath promised the gift of the Holy Ghost or at least the encrease or enlargement of this gift which is the same as to our purpose by way of encouragement and reward unto those that live godlily or that shall believe which we know is the entrance upon or the beginning of a godly life This is evident from many places of Scripture which we shall not need upon this account at present to insist upon Now it is I presume no manner of doubt but as the gift of Jesus Christ the natural Son of God unto men was and is a greater gift a greater encouragement unto men to believe in him for Justification than the gift of a meaner person would have been So likewise is the gift of such a Spirit to quicken enlighten teach comfort and support the hearts and souls of men who is naturally and substantially God himself a greater gift a far higher and greater encouragement to perswade men to believe and live holily and godlily than the gift of any inferiour or created Spirit would have been So that it appeareth by the light shining in at this window also that the Doctrine maintained by us in the Question yet depending and which asserteth the Holy Ghost to be God is far more sympathizing with the interest of Godliness in the World than the other To this we might add a third Argument to prove the Opinion which denieth the Holy Ghost to be God not to be a Doctrine according unto Godliness comparable with that which affirmeth it And that is this That doctrine which rendereth the threatnings against ungodliness lighter less considerable or more easie to be born is not a Doctrine so effectual for the advancement of Godliness as that which holdeth forth these to be more terrible but so does that Doctrine contended against CHAP. VIII The most material Arguments that are generally insisted on by those who deny the Divinity of the Holy Ghost are weighed in the balance of the Sanctuary Wherein also those Scriptures which are generally insisted on by those who perswade themselves and would also perswade others that he that is the Searcher of hearts is but of a finite extraction Or the Holy Spirit of God is but a Creature are all discharged from bearing that burthen which is laid upon them As also the great profitableness yea the great necessity of this Discourse though somewhat large is asserted LEt us hear now what our Adversaries are wont to plead for the supporting of their Cause Sect. 1 we shall find their Arguments generally to be empty subtilties built
of the same oneness of the Letter to be found in the Scripture is therefore to be rejected for when the Notion or Substance of what is delivered in the Scriptures either in a plurality or greater number of words or else in words whose signification is more obscure or dark unto the generality of men or else in some Principle or Assertion which vertually contains and comprehends it When this I say is put into one or fewer terms or into words of a more ready and easier signification or is drawn out by clearness of deduction from such words or sayings which vertually contain it it is not therefore to be rejected because it is not word for word found in the Scripture For if the mind of God which hath been more immediately delivered by him in such words which the Holy Ghost as Peter speaketh taught the Apostles and other Penmen of the Scriptures shall be expressed and conveyed to the minds of men in other words than those and taught them it may be too by the Holy Ghost as well as they it is not therefore to be rejected because it is not thus conveyed in those very Terms or Phrases wherein it came immediately from God For if such a thing should be there would be no place left for interpreting opening or expounding the Scriptures but only for reading of them and this without conceiving or forming any sense or meaning of them in one kind or other in the mind either of him that readeth them or of him that heareth them read for a man cannot lightly form the sense of any Phrase or passage of Scripture in his mind and understanding but by the opportunity and advantage of some other words though only inwardly spoken which are more familiar and better known to him And certain it is that the Holy Ghost did not only reveal the substance and subject matter of the Scriptures unto those whom he made choice of for his Penmen but also bound them up in such particular words and phrases as those wherein they are now written that so there might be the greater necessity of the work and service of such Persons whom God should anoynt with the gifts of interpretation and stir up accordingly to the work from time to time For it is no waies to be believed but that had God only given instruction unto the Penmen of the Scriptures to deliver the substance and matter and notions of what they have now delivered if he had left them at liberty to have put it into their own terms I say there is little question to be made but that they would have contrived and put it into such terms that they should have shut out and left no place nor opportunity for those gifts of interpretation and of that service and employment which God hath now opened a door effectually unto and hath layed a necessity upon men to seek after in which kind of employment the God of Heaven hath a great stock of glory going and great concernments amongst men for the promoting of Godliness and growing in Grace I say all this would have been cut off and the necessity of it if the Scripture had been drawn up or put into such words and terms as men possibly may think had been better to have been done So that now as the Eunuch Acts 8.31 demanded when Philip asked him this question viz. Whether he understood what he read in the Scriptures How saith he can I understand unless some man guide me meaning who is able to interpret the Scriptures in like manner may the generality and far greater part of men and women say How shall we understand the Scriptures aright unless some such Interpreter as Job speaketh of one of a thousand shall guide us But not to insist upon this at present evident it is from that little which hath been said that the distinction of God taken Essentially and Personally is not therefore to be rejected because the words or terms of it are not heard in the Scriptures in case the notion sense and substance of them be to be found there Secondly Sect. 2 therefore we reply That though it be no where in so many letters or words said in Scripture that God or the word God is sometimes taken Essentially sometimes Personally yet that it must or ought to be taken sometimes in the sense meant by the one word and sometimes again in the sense meant by the other word may be clearly evinced from the Scripture at least if that be acknowledged and owned as evinced and proved by the Scriptures which is requisite to make the Scriptures speak sense and with congruity to the apprehensions and understandings of men and I know not what can be reasonably thought to be more substantially proved from the Scriptures than such a thing Now that the word God must of necessity to make the Scriptures speak sence be taken sometimes Essentially and sometimes Personally is evident from the consideration and comparing of such Texts and places wherein such a construction or acceptation of the words cannot reasonably be avoided Consider we these two Verses together Heb. 1.8 9. which is quoted from Psal 45. But unto the Son he saith Ver. 8. Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever A Scepter of righteousness is the Scepter of thy Kingdom thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee c. This Clause therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee is rendred both by Beza in the place cited in the New Testament Heb. 1.9 And so by Junius and Tremelius out of the original Hebrew in the Old Testament Psal 45.6 Therefore O God thy God hath anointed c. In the former verse in that Clause Thy throne O God is for ever and ever And likewise in the former place of the clause mentioned in the latter verse according to the Translation specified Therfore O God thy God hath c. the word God is to be understood personally and that of Christ the Second Person subsisting in the Godhead or divine Essence as in the latter place of this Clause Therefore O God thy God hath anointed thee it is to be understood personally of the Father or First Person Now if Christ the Son be God and the Father be God both which are plainly enough asserted in the passages mentioned and yet notwithstanding be not two Gods but one and the same our Adversaries themselves not granting a plurality of Gods then it undeniably followeth that the word God when it is attributed unto them both thus the Father and the Son are God or are the same God evident I say it is that that word God in such Propositions or Sayings as these must of necessity be taken Essentially not Personally because it is manifestly untrue to say that the Father and the Son are one and the same Person and as manifestly true too it is that they are one and the same God there being no more Gods than One. So
that the word God in such Sayings as these cannot be taken Personally but of necessity must be taken Essentially viz. as signifying the Divine Nature or Essence wherin both Persons Father and Son do partake so that the sense and meaning of this Proposition is That the Father and the Son do subsist or are partakers of the same Divine Nature and Essence which Divine Nature or Essence is sometimes expressed by the word God So again when God is said to be a Spirit as Joh. 4.24 it is not to be taken Personally as if the meaning were either that the Father or the Son or the Spirit were a Spirit for though it be true of every of them that they are Spirits the Father is a Spirit and so the Son is a Spirit yet that our Saviour should here affirm it determinately or particularly of any one of them more than other no sufficient Reason can be given Therefore the meaning of our Saviour saying God is a Spirit must needs be this That the Divine Nature and Essence which is communicated to the Three Persons or wherein the Three Persons subsist and so are Essentially one and the same God that thâ—s Nature and Divine Essence is spiritual immaterial and invisible And yet more plainly Rom. 16.27 where God is termed only wise To God only wise be Glory The word God is to be taken Essentially because if it should be here taken Personally viz. for God the Father which our Adversary conceiveth and contendeth for with might and main affirming That to take God otherwise than Personally is to take him otherwise than he is and to mistake him and that there is no such acceptation of the word God in the Scriptures with the like But I say that in the place now before us To God only wise be Glory the word God must needs be taken essentially and not Personally is evident from hence because otherwise the Apostle must suppose that neither Christ nor the Holy Ghost had any wisdom in them or none considerable but God the Father only which how near or far off it is from Blasphemy I leave to sober men to determine Other places there are without number wherein the word God must needs be taken Essentially But these few produced and insisted on are sufficient for the proof thereof Therefore the distinction of God taken Personally and Essentially is not a distinction unheard of in Scriptures as our Adversarie groundlesly affirmeth unless as we noted before by being unheard of he meaneth in respect of the sound of words not in respect of the truth and substance of the matter neither do they who speak of God according to the sense and import of that distinction Affirm any thing of the unsearchable Nature of God which he hath not first affirmed of himself in the Scriptures and so are free from all the guilt of presumption upon such an account But the Adversary cannot be perswaded himself Sect. 3 nor be willing that others should be perswaded that the Scriptures should own or countenance any such distinction as that of God taken Personally and Essentially and therefore trieth his skill to make us believe that it is disclaimed by reason and accordingly levieth three Arguments or Reasons against it We shall propound them in their order as himself hath drawn them up and give replies unto them one by one First saith he It is impossible for any man if he would but endeavour to conceive the thing and not to delude himself and others with empty terms and words without understanding to distinguish the Person from the Essence of God and not to frame two Beings or things in his mind and consequently two Gods This is his first Reason to which we reply three things 1. Whereas to perswade others into his own Judgment or opinion he would put them upon endeavouring to conceive the thing distinctly to mould frame and fashion in their minds or imaginations the manner how a Divine Person should be distinguished from the Divine Nature or Essence Doth he not put men upon a direct course to make shipwrack of their Christianity and all they believe touching the Gospel and Christ Jesus For whereas there are many things plainly asserted and partly clearly supposed of the main Pillars of that Religion and Worship of God which the Gospel commendeth unto the World the mode or distinct manner whereof cannot be conceived or understood by men if so be men shall reject or deny them upon this account I mean because they cannot distinctly conceive or satisfie their imaginations how they should be they must together with the rejection of these reject all that which is built or hangs upon them which is as hath been said the main Fabrick or body of Christianity As to give an instance Because it is once and again plainly affirmed in the Gospel that a Virgin conceived and brought forth a Child and upon this Conception and Child thus brought forth we know that the whole projection and frame of the Gospel dependeth Yet who is able to conceive in his mind the distinct manner how she should or did Conceive or what the Holy Ghost particularly acted or did in order to enable or make her to Conceive or what she her self likewise did towards or about this Conception For to Conceive as well as bring forth is a Verb Active and importeth the doing of somewhat either per modum naturae or per modum voluntatis or both by her who is said to Conceive But that the whole Transaction between the Holy Ghost and the Virgin about the Conception of the Lord Jesus Christ God blessed for ever was mysterious and secret and the manner of it in respect of particulars purposely veiled by God is plainly enough intimated by the words or Phrases wherein the Holy Ghost himself expresseth the said business by the mouth of the Angel who first brought tidings from Heaven unto the Virgin of this high Favour intended by God towards her The Holy Ghost saith the Angel unto her shall come upon thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the vertue or power of the most High shall overshadow thee Luk. 1.35 Shall overshadow thee i. e. shall secretly and after a manner unknown not fit to be revealed unto men negotiate this great business with thee Now if a man should reason so or speak thus unto us about the Virgins Conception It is impossible for any man if he would but endeavour to conceive the things and not delude both himself and others with empty terms and words without understanding to understand or comprehend how a Virgin should Conceive Should he not attempt to perswade us out of the belief of the Gospel and to abandon our Christianity only upon this account because it requireth us to believe such a thing which we cannot conceive how it was or should be And what doth he less that argueth after the same manner to draw us from believing that a divine Person and the divine Essence can be
therefore he is not God This Argument is drawn up in many swelling words after the manner of some of the rest but the sinews and strength of it lyeth in this that the Holy Ghost in the Scripture is said to hear from another that which he speaks or reveals unto men or which he did reveal unto the Apostles and that from hence it follows according to our Saviours supposition Joh. 8.26 compared with ver 28. that he is taught by another and consequently cannot be God The life and soul of this Argument is bound up in this small bundle of words therefore we reply briefly to it First That the very bottom and foundation upon which this Argument standeth is crasie and loose viz. That he that heareth from another what he should speak is taught if by being taught he means the receiving of new knowledge or of the knowledge of things which we knew not of before which he must mean if he means any thing with sense For many may hear from another what they are or ought to speak without being taught in such a sense as when a Jury of men give in a Verdict upon Oath it doth not follow that he that speaks or gives in his Testimony in the second or third place is taught by him that speaks the same thing before him in his hearing for he may speak the same thing out of his own Judgment and Conscience and which he was otherwise resolved to speak though he had not heard it spoken by another before he utters it and so they who spend their time in the study of the Scriptures and in the searching after truth may find that spoken or written which is equivalent to hearing and is hearing in a sense by another which yet falls in with their own thoughts and apprehensions formerly conceived in this case they may be said to hear that from another which they speak and yet not be taught Therefore Secondly Whereas he labours to prove the truth of that assertion from these two passages of the Scriptures Joh. 8.26 28. compared together his labour is in vain for his proof is notoriously defective and weak and this upon a double account For first he takes that for granted which he should have proved as being no waies evident in it self And secondly He supposeth that if it be true in one case that he that heareth from another what he shall speak is taught that therefore it must be true in all cases which is very ridiculous First That which he takes for granted in his proof from these passages is That our Saviour in the latter of the places expoundeth himself in the former or that he speaketh one and the same thing for substance of Notion in them both This I say no way appears nor indeed is much probable For when in the former place he speaks thus But he that sent me is true and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him very probable it is that he speaks of the ineffable and unconceivable hearing whereby all the three Persons hear one another speaking the same things according to that of the same Apostle 1 Joh. 5.7 There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one If they all bear record in Heaven doubtless they hear one another or one from another Or else our Saviour in the words mentioned may be conceived to speak of the Eternal hearing from the Father which is appropriate to him as being his Son by Eternal Generation for the Father communicating one and the same Divine Nature or Essence with himself unto the Son by Eternal Generation must needs communicate all the Divine Attributes and Perfections together with it being indeed but one and the same thing with it and amongst the rest that infinite knowledge and understanding which is proper to it which communication of knowledge may properly enough be termed Christ's hearing of the Father Again When he saith in the latter place Joh. 8.28 he saith According as the Father hath taught me these things I speak He speaks of his teaching or being taught as man or as Mediator in which respect he is elsewhere â—ermed the servant of God and his Father said to be greater than he And consequently he must be inferiour to the Father and so may properly enough be said to be taught by him And that indeed he speaks here of his being taught as man appeareth from the next Verse but that we must not stand to scan all things Thus you see our Adversary in the main proof of his Argument takes that for granted which is not only questionable and uncertain but improbable also in the highest Again Secondly Suppose that which he taketh for granted without proof or probability in the case before us should be granted unto him viz. That our Saviour by hearing of the Father and by being taught by the Father meaneth one and the same thing or explaineth the one by the other yet it no way followeth that therefore all hearing and all teaching should be the same or that every one that heareth of another what he shall speak should be taught by him We gave a sufficient account of this lately it is a weak kind of arguing to reason thus Such and such words or Phrases are to be taken in such and such a sense in this or in that place of Scripture therefore they are to be so taken in all others So that this Argument also is of the same House and Linage with the former only before we dismiss it it may not be unworthy of your observation how strangely God blindeth the eyes of him that composed the Argument when towards the beginning of it to prove that the Holy Spirit is taught and heareth from another what he shall speak he refers us to Isa 40.13 14. which place expresly teacheth the quite contrary viz. That the Spirit of God hath none to teach or direct him the tenour of the place is this Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his Counsellor hath taught him With whom took he counsel or who instructed him and taught him in the path of Judgment and taught him knowledge and shewed to him the way of understanding I know not what words can with more pregnant and express emphaticalness assert the undeceivedness of the wisdom and knowledge of the Holy Ghost than these The Prophet David maketh this an Argument or sign of the departure of men from the Tents of such persons who are secret Enemies unto God viz. making their Tongues to fall upon themselves that is their uttering and speaking such things which apparently make against their own interest and designs Psal 64.8 So they shall make their own Tongues to fall upon themselves all that see them viz. thus ensnared and entangled shall fly away that is shall forsake their party shall no longer be confederate with them This for his fourth Argument The fifth Argument
followeth Sect. 11 He that receiveth of another is not God the Holy Spirit doth so i. e. receiveth of another therefore he is not God The Minor is witnessed from Joh. 16.14 The Major is proved thus God is he that giveth all things unto all wherefore if there be any one that receiveth of another he cannot be God The Antecedent is plain from Acts 17.25 Rom. 11.35 36. The Consequence is undeniable because he that is deficient is not God he that receiveth from another is deficient therefore he is not God The Major is unquestionable for to say one is deficient which implyeth imperfection and yet is God is in effect to say that he is God and not God This is the compass likewise of the fifth Argument the strength of this Argument such as it is is easie enough to be discerned the stress of it resteth upon these words of Christ as you may perceive concerning the Spirit Joh. 16.14 He shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you because he is here said to be a Receiver therefore our Adversary cannot allow him to be God because saith he God is he that gives all things unto all and it implieth a contradiction that he that giveth all things unto all should receive any thing from any but amongst all his Arguments this is the first born amongst the poor For I reply first Though God in a sense be said to give all things unto all yet withal he is said also in a sense proper enough to receive several things and this without any contradiction at all He is said to receive the Prayers of his Saints Psal 6.9 To receive the Saints themselves Psal 49.15 73.24 To receive comfort Isa 57.6 And so to receive glory and honour and power Rev. 4.11 Therefore this Proposition is most untrue He that receiveth of another is not God yea he may be and is God who receiveth something from another as we have heard Nor is it the proper notion of dependency to receive of another these things are very loosely and unduly affirmed God is sometimes in Scriptures said to give all things unto all because he giveth unto all all things which they stand possessed of He gives them Faculties Principles Strength and means to do all things which they do and in this sense he may be said to give them all the actions motions and workings also which they act and work and consequently those very Praises and acknowledgements which yet he receiveth from them too As for example He that gives a man money wherewith to buy such a commodity he may very properly be said to give him the things which are purchased with the money And so the Scripture Phrase runneth for he is thy money speaking of the Servant So when God eâ—dneth a Creature with strength and power to get wealth he may be said to give him wealth it self which he did allow him by means of that power and understanding infused into him God's giving all things unto all in this sense doth not hinder but that he may receive also many of these very things which he giveth in the sense declared therefore it is no infallible Character of a true God not to receive from another The Apostle himself in that very Scripture which the Argument citeth Acts 17.25 saying That God is not to be worshipped with mens hands as though he needed any thing clearly implieth that God may receive things from his Creatures but not upon any such account as this viz. As if he needed any thing meaning for he bettering of his own condition or compleating of his happiness and unless our Adversary can prove that the Holy Ghost received what was Christs for his own necessities and supplies The simple receiving of it doth no way incumber the plea of his Godhead 2. When our Saviour speaking of the Holy Ghost saith He shall receive or shall take as the word signifieth and is accordingly translated in the next verse of mine and shall shew it unto you he doth not imply as if the Holy Ghost had not then when Christ thus spake received or taken that or those things of his for it is certain that he had taken these things of Christ under the Old Testament and had revealed them unto the Prophets of God and other holy men and by these unto the World as is very evident from many Scriptures yea certain it is that he had received them from Eternity but our Saviour's meaning in the Clause or Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall take of that which is mine seems to be this That whereas the Holy Ghost had viz. in his mind or understanding both at present and ever before abundance of that which was Christs even his whole Treasury his relation to his Father his Godhead his Incarnation his Infinite Grace Love Sweetness Holiness c. together with all his Counsels Purposes and Intentions concerning the World c. He should when he should visibly be given and come unto them take not simply this or all this But he should take viz. of himself and out of the Treasury of his own understanding so much or such particulars concerning Christ to reveal unto them which should be necessary for them to know either for their own comfort or to furnish or accomplish them for the great Office and work of Apostles in the World So that the word take in this place The Holy Ghost shall take of mine is used in some such sense as when a man is said to take a thing which is already his own or in his own possession only in order to the doing of something with it in this sense God saith Zach. 11.10 I took my staff even beauty and cut it asunder The staffe he speaks of was in his possession before only he is said to have taken it in order to cutting it asunder So again The Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 13.33 is like unto Leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal to name no more places in this kind ver 31. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of Mustard-seed which a man took and sowed in his Field 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So in the words before us The Spirit shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you i. e. From amongst many other things which he knows concerning me he shall take such and such which shall be needful for you to know and shall reveal them unto you Even as a prudent Minister or Scribe instructed for the Kingdom of heaven As our Saviour speaks out of the rich and full treasure of his understanding taketh and chuseth such and such particular notions and veins of spiritual truth relating unto God and Jesus Christ which he judgeth meet to be delivered and imparted to such and such a people The words taken in such a sense as this do no way favour the dangerous conceit of our Adversaries that the Holy Ghost is not God There is another sense likewise wherein the
which produceth the same effects in and about and with relation unto all men viz. their sustentation or continuation of their Beings but where he worketh variously or differently we hold a proportional difference of his personal presence with men so that our Adversary is quite besides his business at this turn also His Eighth Argument appears in the World with this face Sect. 14 He that changeth place is not God the Holy Spirit changeth place therefore he is not God To prove this he sendeth us to the third of Luke where it is said that the Holy Ghost descended like a Dove upon Christ at the time of his Baptism From this motion or descending ascribed unto the Holy Ghost he would needs infer and conclude that certainly the Holy Ghost cannot be God And why Because saith he God cannot change his place by reason of his Immensity which the Adversaries themselves do hold though the truth is he himself doth not hold it Now who can be said to change and alter his place saith he such a person whoever he be or such a thing cannot be God The Breviate of his Argument cometh only to this That the Holy Ghost changeth his place I suppose he would have said that he is capable of changing his place and therefore cannot be God because changing of place is repugnant to the Omnipresence of God which is God himself To this therefore we briefly reply That the Holy Ghost changeth not his place nor is capable of changing it nor doth his proof from Luke 3.21 22. hold out with his Conclusion For the descending of the Holy Ghost upon Christ in a bodily shape like a Dove doth no waies prove any local motion or shifting of place by the Holy Ghost but only the Doves changing place by the visible symbole whereof the Holy Ghost gave Testimony unto Christ or sealed him for the great Office of Mediatorship which he was now ready to enter upon even as God the Father gave testimony unto him of being his beloved Son by a voice from Heaven But whereas he saith that in the place cited We have the Holy Spirit in a bodily shape descending from heaven which is termiâ—â—â— a quo he affirms that which is not Here is no mention made of the Holy Ghost's descending from heaven in a bodily shape but only of the Holy Ghost descending upon Christ in a bodily shape like unto a Dove without any terminus a quo at all of which he speaketh It is indeed said concerning the voice that was now heard that this came from Heaven but as this Phrase of coming from heaven spoken of the voice doth not suppose the voice was first in the Heaven and then by a change of place came so near the earth as where it was heard but only as if he that spake it had been in the air above those who heard it In like manner if it had been said that the Holy Ghost had descended from heaven in the visible shape of a Dove it would not have implied that therefore the Holy Ghost was in heaven before and now by a local motion or remove came unto Christ but only that the Dove in which he is said to have descended came for some space down through the air And as touching the Metaphor of the Holy Ghost descending it imports nothing but what the Scriptures very frequently speak concerning God himself expressing this variation or change of dispensation or acting by such Phrases which in the Letter of them import change of place Nor do those Texts of Scripture which he citeth to prove that it was not God himself but an Angel who is said Gen. 18.21 to have gone down either divisim or conjunctim prove any such thing As for the rest of those places Acts 7.53 Gal. 3.19 Heb. 2.2 3. Heb. 2.13 these have not so much as a colour of such proof nor indeed have these Texts themselves which are likeliest to serve his turn of all other Acts 7.30 35 38. much more For what though he that appeared in the Bush unto Moses be termed sometimes an Angel or the Angel of the Lord or otherwise the Lord God himself Yet First Neither followeth it that therefore he was a created Angel as because Angels are sometimes termed men as Gen. 18.22 besides other places without number it doth not follow that therefore they were natural and true men But only that they then appeared in the shapes of men they were men by dispensation and for a time only Neither Secondly Doth it follow That in case it be granted that an Angel in one place is therefore termed Jehovah Lord or God because he sustaines the Person or speaks in the name of God that therefore where any thing is attributed unto God as spoken in the name of God it must needs be meant of an Angel these are wild kind of Inferences or Proofs By the way I do not conceive that any Angel properly so called i.e. any created Angel ever stiled himself by the name Jehovah or God but that when he that thus stileth himself is any where called an Angel it is meant of that increated Angel who is called Angelus foederis the Angel of the Covenant and in respect of his frequent appearances unto men and transactings of things aftter the manner of Angels may properly enough be termed the Angel of the Lord. But suppose we should cast in that Text Gen. 18.21 into the Treasury of our Adversaries demands and grant that the Lord who then said that he would go down signifies a created Angel and not Jehovah himself yet this would not much enrich him For there are other places of Scripture where local motion and change of place is upon the account mentioned ascribed unto God see 2 Chron. 30.6 Jer. 12.15 Joel 2.14 Mal. 3.7 Acts 15.16 Zach. 1.16 8.3 and possibly in many other places besides all these God is said to return which as plainly imports local motion as descending doth Yea who knows not that coming and coming forth coming out of his place are frequently attributed unth God see Isa 26.21 Mic. 1.3 where the very expression now contended about viz. descending or coming down is expresly affirmed of God as it is likewise Exod. 19.20 Num. 11.25 Psal 18 9. And who knoweth how oft besides So that from the Holy Ghost's descending an Argument levied against his Godhead is but a vapour or smoak His Ninth Argument is not made of much better materials Sect. 15 however the form and matter of it together produceth this He that prayeth unto Christ to come to Judgment is not God the Holy Spirit doth so Ergo c. The Fabrick of this Argument is built as you may see upon this foundation that the Spirit of God cannot be God because saith he that he prayeth unto Christ to come to Judgment which he proveth from Rev. 22.17 I reply That Text Rev. 22.17 doth no way prove that the Holy Ghost prayeth unto Christ to come to Judgment
so that this is an errour in the foundation For first Though it be here said And the Spirit and the Bride say come yet it is not said that the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the bride say come It is the sense of some learned men that by the Spirit in this place is not meant the Holy Ghost but the Angel or Spirit which Christ is said Chap. 1.1 to have sent to signifie this Revelation unto John and who conversed with him all along hitherto Angels we know are of a spiritual nature and frequently in Scriptures termed Spirits Now to reason either a genere or a specie ad individuum from a general to a particular affirmatively is an Argument fitter for a child than for a man As thus It was a man that did such or such a thing therefore it was William or Thomas that did it such a reasoning as this is that before us The Spirit saith come therefore such or such a Spirit by name as the holiest Spirit of all saith come But grant we the Adversary that which his Argument demands that by the Spirit here is meant the Holy Ghost Yet Secondly It is not necessary to conceive that the Holy Ghost spake thus saith unto Christ come as being without the Bride but as speaking in and by the Bride Nay it cannot reasonably be conceived otherwise For if the Holy Ghost separated from and without the Bride shall say come then the Bride must be supposed to say come of her self and without the presence and assistance of the Holy Ghost In which case were she able to conceive such a Prayer as this of her self which yet she is not yet would it not be acceptable unto God no Prayer being accepted with him but that which is prayed in or by the Holy Ghost Thirdly Though here be two Agents or two Speakers I beseech you mind it mentioned the Spirit and the Bride yet here is but one Action or speaking asserted to them both here is but one Come And the Spirit and the Bride say come it is not and the Spirit saith come and again the Bride saith come No but the Spirit and the Bride together make one lip as it were between them and together they say as it were with one voice come So that this passage or expression wherein the Spirit of God and the Spouse are made joynt Agents or joynt Speakers in one and the same Action or Speech perfectly agreeth with that Notion which runs throughout the Scriptures from place to place according unto which God and the Creature are made Co-workers or joynt Agents in all that the Creature doth worthily and according to the will of God in which respect also the Act produced between them is sometimes ascribed to the one and otherwhile to the other Many Instances hereof we have heretofore given you from the Scriptures if you please let us touch one instead of many at present in this kind not formerly observed and which hath a special affinity with the place in hand Acts 15.28 The Apostles Elders and Brethren assembled at Jerusalem write thus among other things to the Church of the Gentiles For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and unto us to lay no other c. Here the Apostles and the rest with them ascribe that Act of apprehension unto themselves as well as unto the Holy Ghost though to the Holy Ghost in the first place which was raised in them by the assistance and motion of the Holy Ghost though not without the joynt concurrence of their Understandings and Wills also the meaning is not that the things spoken of seemed good unto the Apostles and the rest apart from the Holy Ghost or without the dictating of the Notion or apprehension by the Holy Ghost nor again that it seemed good unto the Holy Ghost simply considered or apart and extrinsical unto them For how then could they have told them that it seemed good unto the Holy Ghost and them But it seemed good unto the Holy Ghost and us the meaning is that the Holy Ghost did enlighten and reveal the thing unto them and gave them directions and put them upon it to send this Counsel unto the Gentiles Namely to impose upon them by way of burthen and charge no other thing but that they abstain from such and such things so that here the Holy Ghost and the Apostles are joyned together in the same Act of apprehension so in the place in hand the Spirit and the Bride they make one and the same voice together the Spirit he dictates and the Bride she uttereth Thirdly suppose it had been so expressed And the Spirit saith come and the Bride saith come That there had been two distinct Actions mentioned the one ascribed unto the Holy Ghost the other unto the Bride or Church of Christ yet neither would it have followed from hence that therefore the Holy Ghost had prayed unto Christ to come to Judgment When a Judge prescribes or dictates the form of an Oath to be taken by a Jury or any Person thereof he doth not swear or take an Oath though the other that speaketh the same words after him doth formally and properly swear In like manner the Holy Ghost may teach the Bride what she should say and put words into her mouth and say thus within the Conscience and Soul of the Church Come Lord Jesus come quickly Now though the Holy Ghost spake these words and dictated unto the Bride what she should say and pray it doth not follow that therefore he should pray himself When Christ taught his Disciples to pray Our Father c. it doth not follow that therefore he himself did pray but he did put words into the mouths of his Disciples which when they came to utter would be a Prayer properly and truly so called c. Mr Brightman understandeth the place thus The Tenth Argument levied against the Deity of the Holy Ghost is this He in whom men have not believed Sect. 16 and yet have been Disciples and Believers is not God Men have not believed in the Holy Spirit and yet have been so viz. Disciples Believers Ergo. The sum and substance of this Argument which spreads much Paper in the Author's words is this because we read in the Scriptures of some called Disciples who yet did not believe in the Holy Ghost Nor had so much as heard or known whether there were any Holy Ghost or no and withal that the Apostle Paul did not take any occasion thereupon to declare the Holy Ghost to be God Therefore certainly he is not God To this I answer and affirm by the way that from the Crown of the head unto the sole of the Foot of this Argument there is no sound part in it For first The Major Proposition which is the head of this Argument He in whom men have not believed and yet have been Disciples and Believers is not God This Proposition I say
is unsound because it is ambiguous and so is apt to abuse mens Judgments and deceive them and not to instruct them For however there is a sense wherein it is good and will hold yet there is another sense which lieth more obnoxious to mens apprehensions which is not true For he may be God the word God taken Personally on whom though men have not believed viz. Explicitely yet they may be Disciples and Believers Though it be true also on the other hand that he that believeth not in God Essentially taken cannot be a Disciple or a Believer He that believeth not that there is one God cannot be a Disciple or true Believer as the case may be But he that believes not the distinct manner of the subsistence of this one God viz. that he subsists in three which we call Persons Or that doth not believe especially explicitely and by name and under relation of any of all the three such an one may notwithstanding be a Disciple and Believer in the Scripture sense I would be loath to pronounce the hard Sentence of non-Disciple or non-Believer against all those that professedly deny the Godhead of Christ or of the Holy Ghost though there are many that are not at all tender in doing it because though explicitely and in terms they deny him yet believing there is one God and this one God being Father Son and Holy Ghost they do implicitely virtually and constructively own and acknowledge them As he that carries a Box sealed up about him wherein he thinketh there is but one Jewel he knoweth of no more yet in case there be three more he carrieth them all by carrying the Box or Case wherein they are contained In like manner he that believeth one God doth virtually believe in the Three Persons though I would not by this extenuate the greatness of the sin and dangerousness of the error of those who in words profess against the Godhead of the Holy Ghost and so of Christ though implicitely and by way of consequence they acknowledge it The ancient Jews such I mean who were Abraham's Seed were true Disciples and Believers yet did not they at least all of them explicitely believe Christ to have been or that he was the Son of God but the Proposition we are now upon is not indeed worthy the labour already bestowed upon the examination of it Vanitate suâ translucet A man may see through it Secondly That which is the Basis and main Foundation of the whole discourse of the Argument is an absolute mistake and misapprehension For the meaning of the words spoken by those who are called Disciples Acts 19.2 We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost is not that they had never heard of the name or simple being of the Holy Ghost we shall manifest the contrary hereunto presently but that they had not as yet heard whether the Holy Ghost was in actu secundo as the School-men speak i.e. whether he was abroad again in the World as formerly he was in the daies of their Fore-fathers and Prophets This to be the true and plain meaning of the words appeareth by several considerations First The Verb Substantive here used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies the simple and absolute being or existence of a thing is oft used in the Scriptures for the being of a thing in Act Exercise or Manifestation in this sense it is used more than once by our Saviour himself The Evangelist John useth it concerning the Holy Ghost himself Joh. 7.39 This he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet the word given inserted in our English Translation is not in the Original the Holy Ghost was not yet because that Jesus was not yet glorified was not yet i.e. was not yet abroad in the World amongst Believers in the discovery of himself by those miraculous and extraordinary gifts which afterwards he conferred upon many so when these Disciples the Argument speaketh of said that they had not so much as heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether the Holy Ghost be The meaning is that they had not heard whether he had been yet given or no viz. upon a new account the ancient account upon which as they conceived He was formerly given being expired and out of date long since Our English Translators might as well have inserted the word given in this place as in that of John mentioned and then the Clause would have run thus We have not so much as heard whether the Holy Ghost be given We have heretofore given you many instances from the Scriptures of such an Adjective sense of the Verb Substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that is now contended for viz. From Mat. 5.45 Rom. 7.13 c. This sense in the second place is confirmed against that given or supposed by our Adversaries in the Argument before us from hence because these Disciples had certainly heard of the being of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit For first Being Jews which appears by their having been baptized by John's or some of his Disciples Baptism in those daies not having been carried out amongst the Gentiles and after it was come abroad unto other Gentiles they in Asia where Ephesus stood were for a time denied it Acts 16.6 being Jews I say they could not but have heard of the being of the Holy Ghost or of the Spirit of God mention hereof being so plainly and frequently made in the Scriptures I need not I suppose to cite places for this but whether they were Jews or Gentiles having been baptized with the Baptism of John it cannot be imagined but that they had heard of the being of the Holy Ghost For John when he baptized men with water admonished them to believe on him Mat. 3.11 that should come after him who he told them should baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with fire And there is little question to be made but that John's Disciples taught the same Doctrine in this Point with their Master Again thirdly That sense of the words which we have given makes the answer of the Disciples every whit as congruous and pertinent to Paul's question put to them if not more than that sense which the Argument supposeth Paul said unto them or demanded of them have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed They answer him according to the sense we plead We have not so much as heard whether there be any receiving of him or no or whether any other Believers have received him And fourthly and lastly for this there is this reason why these Disciples being Jews as we argued might probably say or mean than they had not so much as heard whether the Holy Ghost were now abroad in the World or no because from the time of Antiochus who miserably afflicted and wasted their Church and State the Jews were wont greatly to mourn and lament as if together with their last
generality of the Saints will enjoy besides that of being filled with the Spirit of God and being drawn out accordingly into waies and works of excellency and well-doing unless it be by suffering Persecution for the Gospels sake although it might be doubted too whether some good degree of being filled with the Spirit be not requisite even to put men into this capacity also For they who have not some competent anointing in this kind will hardly hold out in suffering That which maketh men constant and persevering under temptations and great tribulations to the end is a certain hope and expectation of a great recompense of reward from God as the Scriptures witness in many places which we shall not now insist upon Now such a hope which will make a man stand upright under great Afflictions cannot be raised and gotten up into the soul but by the reflection of a mans Conscience upon him and witnessing unto him that he hath walked in waies of a worthy life and excellent deportment in the World if then there shall be no place for such things as these in the soul without a being filled with the Spirit of God which hath been formerly and largely proved then evident it is that neither men nor women are likely to be capable of that best Resurrection and consequently not of the best Eternity upon one account or other without being filled with the Spirit of God But be it granted or supposed that men may be able deeply to be baptized into suffering for righteousness sake and so become capable of a greater reward in Heaven as our Saviour speaketh without being filled with the Spirit of God Yet as I was saying unto you this method or way to obtain an eternal greatness is more uncertain as to any particular person one or other and less within his liberty or power than by an abundant fruitfulness in well-doing which as hath been shewed will not be found in any man without a being filled with the Spirit nor any man found to be filled with the Spirit without that For to be called forth and strengthened by God to suffer for Christ's or the Gospels sake is matter of peculiar Grace and gift from God and so not in the power of any man himself to chuse according to that of the Apostle to the Philippians Phil. 1.29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake This Argumentative Particle also clearly implieth that to suffer for Christ's sake is not so generally granted unto men as to believe on him is I mean is not granted unto all those unto whom it is granted to believe By suffering in this place I suppose is meant a suffering deeply and to a more than ordinary degree Nor is that of the same Apostle 2 Tim. 3.12 contrary hereunto Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution i. e. shall be obnoxious and liable to suffer persecution or to some degree or other actually suffer So then there being no way at least no way of certainty to heap up these Treasures in Heaven to lift up your heads on high and that to Eternity amongst those that shall be partakers of the same glory with you to enlarge your capacities respectively for blessedness and glory but by being filled with the Spirit â—â—is must needs highly commend such a qualification or priviledge 〈◊〉 this unto you and cause your hearts to burn in longing desires â—â—â—er it The two Sons of Zebedeus James and John made this reâ—â—est unto Christ that the one of them might sit at the right hand c. Mar. 10.35 that they might be next unto him in greatness and in glory The motion our Saviour seemeth to have distasted as in considerately made and accordingly gave the makers of it this check You know not what you ask meaning that they did not understand nor consider how great and excellent how transcendent above measure the matter or priviledge was which they desired nor yet considered upon what terms and on what kind of persons according to the righteous purpose and intent of God it was to be conferred It is not mine to give but to those or those only for whom it is prepared But now though he checked them in respect of their inconsiderateness in making the motion because they understood not what they asked nor knew upon what terms they asked it for they asked it upon the account of favour and partiality in God because related unto him as Friends and Followers Yet otherwise he doth not blame them simply for desiring it but for desiring it after such a manner viz. carnally But when he saith ver 40. it is for them for whom it is prepared He doth imply that it is not for two persons only but for such persons that are so and so qualified As if Christ should have said this on purpose to draw and wind up the hearts of his Creatures men and women to waies of excellent righteousness and holiness There shall be some places of glory higher than other and they whose hearts will serve them to come up to my Fathers terms and quit themselves like men in what he expects from them in righteousness faithfulness and holiness these shall be the persons He doth not blame them simply for desiring these high accommodations in heaven but rather enciteth and encourageth them to quit themselves at such a rate of worth and excellency whilst they lived that they might be found those persons indeed for whom they were prepared and so be invested with them My Brethren the right hand and the left hand of Jesus Christ in his Kingdom of all desirable things they are most desirable The Ministration of the Law the Apostle plainly informeth us was glorious and yet affirms withal the Ministration of the Gospel to be much more glorious Yea though the former Ministration of the Law in simple consideration be glorious yet comparatively it was not glorious So my Brethren we might very well have some such kind of notion that all Believers are blessed all are glorious yet nevertheless in respect of those that shall be superabundantly blessed and glorious the others glory shall be but little in comparison There is one glory of the Sun and another glory of the Moon and another glory of the Stars and these differ one from another in glory even so shall it be in respect of the glory of the Saints Now Who is there but would be willing especially by waies that be honourable and worthy and withal are not difficult to better his estate and condition in the World that now is though what improvement soever he shall make in this kind he is not like to enjoy but for a short season here being no enduring substance Suppose he be in a competent way of subsistence at present as suppose he be worth a hundred pounds or two or three per Annum if there were a way opened to
and Exhortations teach the Sons and Daughters of men such a deportment and demeanour of themselves in all cases and under all circumstances that will set them off with the best and highest acceptation with men for every Command and Precept of his hath a kind of pleasant correspondence with the frame and condition of man and when men and women neglect the performance of any of them in their season or shall do any thing contrary unto them they render themselves so much the less lovely and desirable No man ever neglected any of the Commands of God but that by every such neglect ipso facto they stain and spot the dignity and excellency of their glory whereas if they had been true to themselves and to their own interest in yielding obedience to those Commands of God they would have been more lovely comely and pleasant and more highly accepted both with God and amongst men The Holy Ghost himself very frequently commends obedience and subjection unto the Laws of God under this very Notion we now speak of unto men My Son saith Solomon Prov. 1.8 9. hear the Instruction of thy Father and forsake not the Law of thy Mother For they shall be an Ornament of grace upon thy head and Chains upon thy neck meaning that Instructions from the Word of God administred unto us by our Parents and those that be over us being regarded and submitted unto by us will render us lovely and respected both of God and men So again Prov. 3.22 So shall she meaning Wisdom submitted unto be life unto thy soul and grace unto thy neck She shall be an Ornament of Grace unto thy head c. So again 1 Tim. 2.9 10. The Apostle in this Contexture of Scripture sheweth how women professing Godliness ought to behave themselves in all Modesty Shamefac'dness and Sobriety accompanied with good works these namely good works are comely Ornaments as well for men as for women And it is the property of good works and all manner of conforming to the Will of God to make a kind of noise in the World and to provoke men to look upon them who are found fruitful in them Even as rich Jewels do make and beget by their Lustre a kind of high esteem and reverence in men to persons who wear them In like manner they who shall adorn themselves with works of righteousness by submitting to the Commands of God shall by such waies be known to be the Sons of God even by the richness of those Ornaments and Jewels which hang about their necks Mat. 3.15 It becometh us saith our Lord Christ to fulfill all Righteousness as who should say This is the way that would advance and adorn him and make him more comely in the sight of God his Father and of Angels and of Men. And so Rom. 16.2 That ye receive her in the Lord speaking of Phebe as becometh Saints and that ye assist her c. My Brethren there is no occasion no business nothing to be done either abroad or at home when a man is sitting in his house or speaking to his Servants or any other persons but there is an opportunity for such a kind of behaviour which will well become us and which will set us off with a kind of comliness or loveliness in the eyes of those which are about us This then is the first thing which we commend unto you by way of Instruction That if it be a Duty imposed by God upon all men especially Believers to be filled with the Spirit then is it a comly and honourable thing for men and women to be filled with the Spirit and to walk accordingly by means whereof they shall find acceptation both in Heaven and in Earth Secondly Sect. 2 If it be the Will and Command of God that all Believers especially should be filled with the Spirit of God take we further knowledge from hence that there are some Duties and these of most worthy consequence and concernment unto men unto which the minds and consciences of men even of Professours themselves are generally asleep taking little notice of them or of yielding obedience unto them they do not put them into their Roll or Catalogue of Duties or things commanded or enjoyned For first That this Precept of God which enjoyns a being filled with the Spirit of God directed more particularly unto the Saints is a Precept of very high concernment unto them hath been made to appear formerly and particularly when we gave directions how to raise an ardent desire in your souls unto it by setting before you the various and most rich accommodations which do alwaies accompany such a fulness Secondly That this Precept notwithstanding the excellency of it is little in the thoughts of Believers themselves and that their Consciences are little better than dead unto it is too too evident from the general neglect that is found amongst them of the use of the means which are proper to fill them accordingly without the diligent use whereof it is impossible they should be obedient unto the Precept as we have heretofore opened the business unto you and besides the little regard of this Precept even amongst Believers themselves is apparent more than enough from the general tenour of their actions and waies which are nothing like the actions and waies of men filled with the Spirit And as it is with this Precept of being filled with the Spirit in being so generally neglected and forgotten by Believers So is it with several other also which share in the same disrespect at the hand of Believers with it viz. as That of walking circumspectly or exactly as the word signifies That of redeeming the time in respect of the evil of the daies wherein we live That of bearing one anothers burthens That of not respecting persons for their wealth and costly cloaths That which enjoyns rich men to be rich in good works These with some others as generally all such which grate hard upon the flesh and require a spiritual Heroickness and true greatness of spirit to submit unto them and which are not sanctioned or back'd with an express threatning of exclusion from the Kingdom of God and of Salvation in case of disobedience Most of the Precepts of any of these Characters are like some absolute and antiquated Laws or Statutes in a State or Commonwealth which through a long customary and general disuse and neglect are no more minded or regarded than if they were not nor persons any waies challenged charged or thought the worse of for not conforming themselves unto them So are such Precepts of Christianity which respect excellency of walking and have not the vengeance of hell fire attending them to awaken the Consciences of men to the observance They seem to be no otherwise looked upon by Professours than as if they were given by the Lord Christ only to be gazed on and looked at and not with any intent that they should be obeyed by men or with any expectation
the work of Redemption Sathans chief work lies to undermine the Godhead of those persons to whom that work is most appropriate and who are most engaged therein For the Son of God is his great Enemy and the Person who threateneth his undoing and the Ruine of all that he hath gotten by drawing men aside from God And then likewise the Holy Ghost hath put to his supreme hand all his work being bent against the Devil and his Temptations Now in reason it cannot be thought but that he Satan will be more engaged against these to bring their Godhead if it be possible into question and to destroy the belief of it out of the World He that doth but know the nature of him as that he is full of malice mischief and bloud and that he is ready to rise up against God himself as far as he is able I say they that do but know the Devil so far cannot wonder at it or think it strange that he should labour to fill the World in all the quarters of it with such kind of Notions and Opinions that shall make the greatest breaches upon the honour and reverence that is gotten up into the hearts of men both towards the Lord Christ God blessed for ever and the Holy Ghost that Spirit of God by whom the Children of God are sealed to the day of their Redemption But as the Prophet Jeremiah in a case not much unlike demands What is the Chaff to the Wheat So may we say What is finite to that which is infinite What is a Creature for the carrying on of the Salvation of the World in comparison of the great Creator Secondly Whereas there are a thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousands Saints upon the Earth and these in places far distant from one another to be filled at the same time with the Spirit of God or that may be engaged with their hearts and souls in waies and means to be thus filled with the Spirit if the Spirit which should fill them in this kind be a created a finite Spirit limited and confined to one and the same place at one and the same time for this must be his condition if he be finite How can these be raised to any ground of hope that ever they should be filled with the Spirit For if he be a finite Spirit it is impossible that he should fill any more than one person at a time and so must depart and withdraw thence to fill another And As Andrew said Joh. 6.9 of that slender provision which was to be had in comparison of the great multitude that were to be fed There is saith he a Lad here which hath five barley Loaves and two small Fishes but what are these amongst so many So may we well demand and ask in the case before us there being such vast numbers and multitudes to be filled with the Spirit What is a limited a finite a created Spirit to fill them all What is such a Spirit as this amongst so many thousands such an infinite number of men and women who all are labouring to be filled with the Spirit How is it possible he should accommodate such a numberless number of Saints so as to make them all glad Therefore they who teach men that the Holy Ghost the Spirit that shall fill them is but a Creature like unto themselves in limitedness and fuâ—iteness of being do by these whom it concerns to be filled with the Spirit and in order hereunto advance in their endeavours accordingly much as those Spies of old did by the Israelites Num. 13.32 who by bringing an evil report upon the good Land of Canaan and telling them that it was a Land that did eat up the Inhabitants of it discouraged the hearts of the People from attempting the Conquest and possession of it if it had not been for Caleb and Joshuah whose hearts were more upright In like manner they that bring up such a report as this upon the Spirit as that he is but a finite Spirit a created Spirit a straitned Spirit what do they do else but discourage the hearts and weaken the hands of those who have given out themselves and have their hands lifted up to such an exercise and make Treasure of such an heavenly advice and piece of Counsel as this is of being filled with the Spirit of the ever blessed God And besides if the Spirit we speak of with which the Saints are to be filled be a finite Spirit suppose he could at any time mind and attend them all all over the World from the East to the West and from the North to the South in their several applications of themselves to obtain such a filling yet he could actually fill but one person one heart or one soul at once and therefore when he hath filled one he must empty him again by withdrawing himself from him before he can fill another because it is impossible that he should fill them all with himself at one and the same time If it be replied Sect. 4 but he may be said to fill the Saints with himself although he doth not abide alwaies personally present with them viz. by leaving strong impressions of himself his grace and power upon their hearts and spirits though in person he be withdrawn from them as those Saints or Christians amongst whom Paul had been preaching the Gospel and had not only prevailed with them to believe but had put them into a zealous posture of profession and made them like unto himself these may be said to be filled with Paul or with Pauls spirit I reply That holy and zealous impressions upon the hearts and spirits of men may be declarative of their being filled with the Spirit of God but they are not properly and formally their filling or their being filled with this Spirit they are but the suites symptoms or signs of their being filled therewith as the Grapes that grow upon the Vine are not the Vine it self A being filled with the Spirit implies an actual residence or abode of the Spirit himself in men according to that of our Saviour Joh. 14.16 17. And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever he in person not in his gifts or operations only So in the next verse And he shall be in you And the Apostle maketh a plain and express difference between the Person of the Spirit and the Gifts of the Spirit 1 Cor. 12.5 Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit So verse 11. But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit And the Scripture from place to place speaketh of the Holy Ghost as personally inhabiting or residing in the Saints as in these and the like expressions and passages 2 Tim. 1.14 That good thing which was committed unto thee saith Paul to Timothy keep by the Holy Ghost which or who dwelleth in us the gifts or operations of the Holy Ghost
given of any different consideration wherein the action is ascribed unto God and wherein it is ascribed unto the Holy Ghost whereas for all those other Scriptures the very tenour of the words and many of the Phrases do give light sufficient whereby to discern when God is said to do such and such a thing and when the same action is attributed to the Creature and in what sense it is ascribed unto the one and unto the other Secondly The clause formerly taken notice of dividing unto every man as he will speaking of the Spirit plainly sheweth that the Spirit in working and giving the gifts here spoken of acteth in the capacity of God or of an independent being who hath power to order and manage all things according to the counsel of his will and not as a Creature for it is the Character of every Creature and second Agent or instrument not to act any thing according to his own will but according to the will of the Principal Agent 11ly That Spirit which is to fill all the Saints had need to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a searcher of the reins or knower of the heards of the Children of men otherwise how should he know when and upon what account to fill them with his presence and how to fall in with such a creature as man is in order to such an end Now we know that this Prerogative of searching the hearts and trying the reins the Scripture appropriates unto God yea and all Interpreters have acknowledged it as one of his incommunicable properties To make this therefore a universal and standing Priviledge to any created being whatsoever What is this but to rob God of that which is incommunicable and to transfer upon the Creature that which is beyond its Line a priviledge only commensurable unto him that is God himself and appropriate unto his own transcendent glory 12ly Sect. 10 Let me add one thing more which I have had occasion given me to think of and consider since I last spake unto you by means of a little book which came to my hand lately I suppose published by that importune Spirit which laboureth might and main to fill the World with dishonourable thoughts at least comparatively concerning the Holy Ghost unweariedly propagating and spreading abroad this dangerous Opinion which we oppose As it is said of some who have itching ears heaping up Teachers after their own Lusts so there are Teachers who have itching heads and are restless in drawing Disciples after them Now in this little Book in a short Epistle directed to the Christian Reader prefixed by the Author unto this Book he conjures his Reader as he tenders his own salvation that he would thoroughly examine his disputation and discourse plainly enough intimating hereby that without being of his opinion and judgment which according to the sense of those who understand the Scripture yea and sound Principles of Reason better than he judgeth that he breatheth no less than blasphemy against the Holy Ghost yet by the said conjurement of his Reader he plainly enough declares his sense to be that without being of his mind in denying the Godhead of the Holy Ghost there is no salvation Now I cannot but look upon this as little less than or next to a demonstrative Argument against that opinion which is obtruded upon the World upon those terms and that the opinion it self is erronious and of a dangerous consequence unto men For it is matter of ready observation that when men take up any new or by opinion which they desire for the honour of their names and glory of their parts and abilities to propagate in the World and being not furnished to their minds with grounds and reasons otherwise to convince and satisfie the judgments of men about them they are still wont to attempt the amusing and stumbling the Consciences and Judgments of men by a confident and importune bearing them in hand that the opinion which they commend unto them is no less than matter of eternal Life and eternal Death Thus the Jewish Doctors in the Apostles times would bear the Christians in hand Acts 15.1 That except they were circumcized after the Law of Moses they could not be saved We see here they made Circumcision a matter of life and death and that not Circumcision only or simply but Circumcision after that manner and mode But the Apostle knew better what did belong unto Circumcision and taught them a contrary Doctrine I Paul saith he say unto you if you be circumcized Christ shall profit you nothing And the truth is that such Notions and Doctrines for the most part which are thrust upon men or violently urged upon their Judgments and Consciences upon such an account as this as they stand charged as they love their Souls or desire Salvation to entertain this or that for truth these are more contrary and destructive than other to the salvation of the Promoters and Abettors of them As particularly I believe with the consent of all the ancient Fathers that this Opinion or Notion which denieth the Holy Ghost to be God is destructive unto the salvation of men destructive certainly it is whether destruction alwaies follows actually or no The tendency and course of it if it be not otherwise hindered will lead men to destruction but it may be hampered with other cross Doctrines in Christian Religion and so eternal ruine haply may be prevented The Christian Learning that was in the World in those Fathers daies could not tell how to frame and build up the body of Christian Religion nor how to make head or foot of the Gospel without this Doctrine that the Holy Ghost was one and the same God with the Father and with the Son and yet now we have a quite contrary commended unto us and thrust upon us and that upon such terms as that we hazard the loss of salvation unless we be of the same mind with them that deny the Deity of the Holy Ghost But to let you see how inconsistent men of this mind are with themselves there is another that is full of the same opinion denying both the Godhead of the Son and of the Holy Ghost that yet find faults with those that are opposite unto him for handling and writing so particularly and fully concerning the great Mysterie of the Trinity and he maketh this his pretense That however the case be if it should be so sure as we say yet we trouble and intangle the thoughts and minds of the Common people And the reason is because the Doctrine of the Trinity is no waies necessary unto salvation This is the sense of another as great a Master in his way and one who was able to say as much or more to this Opinion than they that are troublesome to us herein 13ly and lastly For this suppose we that there be some yet unsatisfied Sect. 11 that cannot tell which way to turn themselves because it may be there is so much said
dissatisfaction and contradict and be contentious such ought to know and consider for their satisfaction that neither they the Apostles nor yet the Churches of God far or near had in the case mentioned any such custome which was contrary unto and differing from that which now they had commended unto them So the great Prophet David long before judged it an absurdity a thing unworthy of him to act any thing wherein he should offend against or condemn the generation of the Righteous Psal 73.15 meaning the generality of Saints or persons fearing God So that the Authority Testimony and Consent of Christians in their several Generations in matters concerning their Profession and Religion ought to be and alwaies hath been amongst the best and soundest Christians of very great esteem especially when matters in question between themselves could not be cleared issued or determined otherwise And they that in such cases would not be satisfied herewith were still looked upon by sober Christians as men of proud turbulent and unpeaceable spirits according to the saying of an ancient Writer Contra rationem nemo sobrius Contra Scripturas nemo Christianus Contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus And it is a saying of a learned Country-man of our own Doctor White Hominem Christianum nunquam eum arbitrabor qui judicium Ecclesiae nihili fecerit Another late Writer of great note and worth hath this saying Quod per omnem Ecclesiam receptum est disputando velle in cotroversiam vocare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est Now then for the swaying and ordering of our Judgments in the Question in hand in case we be at a loss or at a stand in respect of all artificial Arguments and Proofs from the Scriptures certainly the Judgment of the Christian Churches and of the learned Teachers thereof in all Ages is of the most and safest concernment unto us What their sense in the case more generally is and from the Apostles time hath been we shall shew presently Secondly Sect. 13 Suppose this to be the case that we are travelling in a Journey we come where there is a diversity of waies one on this hand another on that hand and being strangers in the Country we know not which of the two waies leads to the place whither we are going only we are certainly informed that many sober and understanding persons who have travelled to the same place whither we are going and were careful in their Journey to find out the right way went that way for example which lieth on the right hand and that very few and these little considerable otherwise went the other way that lieth on the left hand Is it not then much more reasonable that in this uncertainty we should take that way which hath been most occupied and beaten by the feet of so many discreet and wary Travellers who we have the greatest grounds of confidence to believe are safely arrived at the place whither they intended their Journey and we intend ours also than to adventure our selves in the other way concerning which we know not whether ever any person travelling in it came in peace to his Journeys end This is the case between the two Opinions before us that which denieth the Holy Ghost to be God the same God in Essence or Substance with the Father and that which confesseth or believeth him to be God equal with the Father Now then there is on the right hand way those who say that the Holy Ghost is God the most high God And there are on the left hand those also who deny him to be the most High God But those that went on the right hand way were the generality of Christians which were most sober and most learned and fullest of Piety and Zeal who believed the Holy Ghost to be God indeed one and the same God with the Father and concerning these viz. the generality of ancient Fathers and Christian Martyrs of old and Confessours in the Primitive times and the great body of Christians taught and instructed by them we have the greatest assurance that lightly can be that these are safely arrived at the place whereunto they travelled which is the Kingdom of Heaven Whereas concerning those who have gone the other way which saith the Holy Ghost is not God but a created and finite Spirit as they are very inconsiderable as I said being compared with those that have gone the other way so were they viz. the greatest number of those few the greatest Persecutors that ever the Christian Churches met withal For it is generally acknowledged that the Arian Persecution was the greatest that ever was and that it rose from out of them And for the course of their lives they are not therein comparable to the generality of those that are gone the other way So that in such a case as this it is easie to determine what is best becoming Christians to do if they should be strangers to both the Opinions If they do not know but that the one may be as good as the other yet inasmuch as the generality and best sort of Travellers those who are of the best credit and most judicious have gone that way which we are contending for it is most safe and most acceptable in the eyes of God who loveth that men should act according to Principles of Reason for men in their judgment to go along with such For certainly after a consciencious search and enquiry about the truth in any matter of question in Christian Religion if we cannot come by the light of any Argument from the Scriptures to satisfie our selves touching the truth therein God himself doth send us for our resolution to the footsteps of the Flock and to the Shepherds Tents I mean to the Authority and Judgment of the Churches of Christ in their Generation Thirdly Sect. 14 Though God in his Law Exod. 23.2 prohibiteth men to follow a multitude to do evil what multitude soever it be and consequently to joyn with a multitude in receiving or taking up an Error yet of the two it is better I mean it is far the lesser sin and less provoking in the sight of God to follow a multitude of grave wise and consciencious persons upon the terms specified though it be as to matter of issue and event to take up an erroneous Perswasion or Opinion than it is to forsake such a multitude as we speak of grave wise c. though a man should peradventure embrace the truth it is more safe for a man to take up an error with such a Multitude than to go alone or with some few or inconsiderate or inconsiderable ones only The reason is because it is much more reasonable to expect the truth amongst a multitude of grave sober and consciencious persons who are studious of the truth than to expect it amongst a few inconsiderable persons comparatively concerning whose integrity or unfeigned love to the truth there is much more doubt and question Now this also is the case before us
The Fathers generally of greatest esteem in this Generation for Piety Holiness Learning and Faithfulness in the Work of Christ and of the Gospel and consequently we may conclude the generality of Christians who were taught by them and so the Martyrs and Confessors in the purest times of the Church were of this opinion and belief that the Holy Ghost was an Increated Spirit and truly God I might detain you many hours yea many daies in presenting you with passages and sayings of this nature I shall insist upon some few only for the present Austin is known to be a most studious and diligent enquirer into that Faith I mean those Doctrines and Tenents which had been generally held and maintained in the Christian Churches a long time before and from the Apostles daies till his time and to have had means and opportunity to attain to a perfect knowledge of this Faith and withal is known to have been defensor acerrimus a most zealous defender of it He then in his First Book de Trinit Cap. 6. having occasion to mention that of the Apostle Rom. 11.36 And reading the words thus For of him and through him and in him are all things to whom be glory for ever He glosseth them thus Ex ipso i. e. ex Patre per ipsum i.e. per Filium in ipso i.e. in Spiritu Sancto manifestum quod Pater Filius Spiritus Sanctus unus Deus est quando singulariter intulit Ipsi gloria in sacula saeculorum Of him i.e. the Father saith he By him that is by the Son In him that is in the Holy Ghost it is manifest that the Father Son and Holy Ghost is one God inasmuch as he the Apostle infers in the Singular number To him be glory for ever and ever And in his Fifth Book of the same Subject I mean de Trinitate Sed sicut Pater Filius unus Deus ad Creaturam relativè unus Creator unus Dominus sic relativè ad Spiritum Sanctum unum Principium Ad Creaturam verò Pater Filius Spiritus Sanctus unum Principium sicut unus Creator unus Dominus And not long after Similiter de Spiritu Sancto collecta sunt testimonia quibus ante nos qui haec disputaverunt abundantiùs usi sunt quia ipse Deus non Creatura Quod si non Creatura non tantùm Deus nam homines dicti sunt Dii sed verus Deus ergò Patri Filio prorsus aequalis in Trinitatis unitate consubstantialis coaeternus Athanasius lived well nigh an hundred years before Austin and he in that Symbol or Creed which beareth his name is so punctual and precise in this business touching the Godhead of the Holy Ghost that having asserted it he useth these words This saith he is the Catholick Faith which except a man believe undoubtedly he cannot be saved so that he was quite contrary to that Spirit which now standeth up against the Godhead of the Holy Ghost yea these very Fathers Ignatius Justin Martyr Jerome Tertullian Lactantius Hilary c. whom our Adversaries profess to stand by them as if if they spake on their side and against the Deity of the Holy Ghost when the very truth is they are so express and so significant to the contrary that I cannot but account it a little strange that such a claim though I believe it is not without much regret should be laid unto them But our Adversaries perhaps taking some words from these Fathers wherein they do not so fully declare themselves as having declared themselves elsewhere and not minding or at least not well heeding their fuller explication of themselves they will needs bear men in hand that they were of their Opinion Ignatius was the most ancient of them all in a Religious Epistle written to the Christians in Antioch his words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore every one who Prâ—â—heth or professeth one only God to the taking away or denying of the Godhead of Christ he is a Devil or a Slanderer and an Enemy of all Righteousness Now for the most part they that deny the Deity and Divinity of Christ they do the like concerning the Holy Ghost But they who desire farther satisfaction in this kind and to know the full clear and unquestionable Judgment of the ancient Doctors and Churches from the Apostles times may without much trouble satisfie themselves for there are many learned Writers that have taken pains herein If it be objected But is it not a thing of dangerous consequence Sect. 15 and no less than horrid Idolatry a thing which God will severely punish to give the glory of his Godhead unto an another unto any Creature of his or to introduce a plurality of Gods into the World Therefore had not men need to consider narrowly and to bethink themselves over and over how they give up their Judgments and Consciences to such an opinion which maketh the Holy Ghost to be truly God I reply First That as it is a dangerous consequence and no less than horrid Idolatry to give the glory of the Godhead of him who is God indeed the true God unto another unto any Creature in which respect men and women had need be careful above all care that their feet be not taken in such a snare so on the other hand it is altogether as dangerous and Idolatry of as vile a nature and threatning consequence not to acknowledge and reverence him as God who is God indeed And in this respect men and women had need be abundantly solicitous and cautious how they entertain and admit of that Doctrine which denieth the Holy Ghost to be God For in case it shall prove that he is God all they who shall deny him to be God will be found fighters against God which will be worse than simple Idolatry and a sin as threatning and of as dangerous a consequence as the other Secondly Not to acknowledge not to glorifie God as God or as himself especially as he hath revealed himself in his Word is if not plain and express Idolatry yet a very high misdemeanour against God therefore in case God hath revealed himself in his Word to be Three in One and One in Three which is and hath been the sense in a manner some few persons only excepted inconsiderable both in their number and otherwise comparatively of the whole Christian World Fathers Martyrs Confessors Pastors Teachers Bodies of Christian Churches ever since the Apostles daies as was lately shewed They who do not thus acknowledge worship and glorifie him and consequently do not acknowledge and own him as God contract the guilt and expose themselves to the punishment of such a Crime Therefore men and women had need take heed how they reject or deny the Godhead of the Holy Ghost lest by so doing they make a God unto themselves according to their own fansie and worship him after their own imaginations Thirdly Sect.
subjection to the Law Nor yet again is it any Character or property of a Legal Ministry if we take the word Legal in any disparaging sense to promise the Love and Favour of God Life and Salvation to those that shall be found the exactest observers of the things required by God in the Law in the Moral Law especially if such obedience proceed from that Faith which worketh by Love for the Ministry both of the Lord Christ and so of the two Apostles mentioned made many Promises upon these terms viz. upon keeping of these Commandments All or the greatest part of the Beatitudes as they are called pronounced by our Saviour in the entrance upon his Sermon on the Mount Mat. 5. of which we lately spake are but so many Promises made unto persons duly observant of things commanded in the Law As when he saith Blessed are the Meck blessed are the Merciful blessed are the Peace-makers c. Now Meekness Mercifulness and Peace-making c. are holy dispositions with their proper fruits and actions commanded in the Law So again Joh. 15.10 If ye keep my Commandments ye shall continue in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his love Now his Commandments are no other but the very self-same things which are commanded in the Law of God Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments i. e. that hath them in his mind in his life and conversation he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him c. So that still we see that the Promises are made unto the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 2.6 7 10. where the Apostle speaking of God saith that he will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing i. e. by keeping the Commands of God seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but to them that are contentious c. indignation and wrath By such Passages as these it doth evidently appear that both the Ministry of the Lord Christ and of the Apostle Paul was full of these Promises unto moral qualifications or unto obedience unto the Law Thus then we see that a Ministry is not to be termed Legal in any reprovable sense upon the account of any the three properties mentioned nor yet upon the account of them all though concurring in one and the same Ministry as indeed they ought yea and must if they will be faithful and are like to edifie men in faith and holiness Very like it is that the persons now under censure Sect. 13 do ignorantly asperse that Ministry as Legal against which they seek a quarrel upon the pretense of one or other or all the three particulars specified But the Ministry that deserves that imputation of being Legal to add this briefly by the way is first and most properly such which teacheth Justification i. e. Remission of sins by Works i. e. by the merit of Works for otherwise Faith is a Work and so called by our Saviour himself Joh. 6.29 But to Preach Justification by Faith is not to Preach Legally but most Evangelically For that was the Master vein of the Ministry of Paul viz. to avouch and prove that Justification was to be obtained by Faith in Jesus Christ whereas they the Jews held that it was to be obtained by observing and keeping the Law Now though to Preach Justification by Faith alone as was even now said be not to Preach Legally but Evangelically yet to Preach it by Faith sensu meritorio as if Faith were the meritorious cause of Justification is either to Preach Legally or upon an account every whit as bad and as repugnant to the tenour of the Gospel Secondly That Ministry may in a sense be termed Legal which like unto Pharaoh's Taskmasters in their hard dealings by the Israelites exacteth the full Tale of Brick from men yet gives them no straw whereof to make them I mean which is continually in a manner pressing men unto duties yea the hardest of duties binding the heavie burthens of the Law upon the Consciences of men with the Iron bands of sharp reproofs and sore threatnings seldom or never ministring unto them the rich and high encouragements of the Gospel whereby both their hearts and hands might be strengthened and all that which is distasteful to the flesh in such works and waies be drowned and taken away They that require of men to do Angels work I mean do high and excellent services to God should feed them with the food of Angels they had need have the highest encouragements even such as are in the Gospel They that require of men to be as fruitful and as zealous in serving God and men as Paul was who laboured to promote the interest of God and men more abundantly than they all as himself saith they must endeavour to lift them up higher as high as the third heaven for there doubtless it was that Paul learned that nobleness greatness and worthiness of spirit there he learned to act after another manner of Rate than all the men of the World besides who never came there as he had done The way to draw out mens hearts and souls and all that is within them in serving God and men doing good to their Generation is as far as possible to raise in them the consolation of the Gospel then shall you bring the World under your feet and when that shall be under your feet then shall you be able to lift up your hands to any of the Commands of God But untill men are full of the hope of the life and glory and great things of the World which is to come every good work and way will stick with them and combate with their souls and spirits whereas give men but felicity enough and then if their eyes will do you any service they will pluck them out and give them unto you But this only by the way to give a little light whereby to estimate a legal Ministry which is a Word or Phrase used by many but rightly understood by very few Thirdly Such a Ministry may be termed Legal which sendeth men forth about their spiritual business in their own strength without informing them and that plainly that without Jesus and his Spirit they can do nothing For the gift of the Spirit unto men and so also the Doctrine of Prayer upon which God doth convey his Spirit is Evangelical Received you the Spirit by the hearing of the Law c. therefore they who teach men that they have no need of the Spirit or of the gracious assistance thereof but that they may do things in their own strength are in a sense Anti-Evangelical Teachers Fourthly and lastly That Ministry also may not unproperly be called Legal which bindeth over to Condemnation where the Gospel doth not that concludeth or shutteth men up under Sin and Wrath where the Gospel doth not or that shall make any stricter bands of
and Virtue of Temperance Sobriety c. saith that young men are wont to speak of these things to utter them among themselves but they do not believe them In like manner many who are real Atheists in heart and soul may discourse largely that there is a God they may insist upon all those Arguments and Reasons that have been given by learned men for the proof hereof yea they may urge them with a great deal of stress and weight yet it is not necessary to suppose but that they may be in doubt whether they be true or no. The Fool saith David hath said in his heart there is no God Many may say this in their hearts while they are zealously and with a great deal of heat arguing that there is a God It is recorded of one of the Popes that in conference with one of his Cardinals about their great Revenues and Wealth they had gotten he spake thus unto him Quantum nobis profuit haec Christi fabula What a world of Wealth hath this Story or Fable of Christ brought in unto us Now this Pope and so many others may be devout in pressing and urging of the Gospel and many things contained in it and yet all this while have no manner of belief that there is any truth or any reality in the Gospel or in the things that are delivered there Many men have written very learned Commentaries upon many Books of Scripture yet it is not necessary to be supposed that they believe the truth of these things upon which they thus write and make Expositions Men may do the like upon any fabulous Books of the Apocrypha as of Bell and the Dragon they may draw from thence many good Conclusions and Doctrines and yet not believe that there was such a thing I heard not many years since this passage of a Preacher in England that coming to the house of another Minister of his acquaintance he was entreated to Preach for him on the Lord's day he consented and performed the Service very gravely and substantially the subject matter of his Sermon was to prove the Resurrection of the dead he insisted upon and pressed several weighty Reasons and Arguments to prove it Having ended his Sermon the Minister for whom he Preached being present gave him many thanks for his Sermon adding some words testifying his special approbation of it Why replied he that Preached do you believe what I said meaning concerning the Resurrection Believe it said the other what else Being somewhat startled at such a Question Truly said that Preacher for my part I do not Therefore to be able to plead learnedly and with acuteness of Wit or solidity of Understanding for any Truth or Subject doth not necessarily argue or prove that a man knows the truth or certainty of the being of that which he pleadeth for at such a rate Possibly men may be able to bring forth such Arguments which may be able to carry all other mens judgments before them and yet they themselves may be empty all this while of the belief of that whatsoever it is they do assert and prove The Scriptures themselves seem to hold forth a difference between knowing a thing and the believing of it Joh. 10.38 But if I do saith Christ to the Jews the works of my Father meaning the works that his Father had appointed him to do and such which are proper for him only to do though ye believe not me i. e. though you do not as yet think me a person worthy of credit or belief yet believe the works i. e. believe that which the works testifie of me that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him i. e. meaning that ye may have Arguments and Grounds not only which are sufficient to perswade and convince you of my Divinity and upon which you may argue that I am the same dialectically or with probability but by which also you may be actually and de facto perswaded of the truth and certainty hereof so as to believe it that you may know and not only so but that you may believe that you may not only have Arguments and Reasons to be able to discourse of it but that your knowledge may be rich and full of satisfaction in your own souls And so in that heavenly Prayer of his Joh. 17.8 a little before his death speaking of his Disciples For I saith he have given them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me Our Saviour seems to make a difference between these two their knowledge and their belief of him They have known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. meaning they have upon sufficient and true grounds known i. e. apprehended and conceived that I came from thee yea saith he they have done somewhat more than this they have believed that thou hast sent me they have yielded up their hearts souls and consciences to the convincing power of these words which thou gavest me to speak unto them and have according fully believed that thou hast sent me So then that knowledge of God of his Attributes and Counsels which we affirm to be requisite to put you into a condition or capacity of an ample and large Communion with God must be a knowledge not simply of those things which are written in the Scriptures concerning God but a knowledge of the reality truth and certainty of them i. e. that God is really such an One such a Nature Essence and Being in all points as the Scripture representeth him to be that he is full of Mercy and full of Goodnrss c. Now this is that kind of knowledge of which we do affirm that when it is extensive and any whit large it giveth a capacity of the Communion we speak of Again Secondly This was signified unto you that that knowledge of God Sect. 21 of his Nature and Counsels which will advance you to an ample or rich Communion with him must be somewhat comprehensive and include a very considerable number of those things concerning God his Excellencies and Perfections his Counsels and Decrees c. which are declared and imparted unto the World by the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures They must be men in Understanding and not Children that shall be the Sons and Daughters of this high Prerogative we speak of yea they must be able not only to apprehend and conceive aright of the Mind of God in the Scriptures so far as the words in their Grammatical and next-hand sense will carry them but they must be expert to some good degree at least in the Logical sense of such Scriptures also My meaning is they must be able to build workman-like upon the Scriptures they must be able to find out the Will of God to understand and likewise to go along with many Principles and Grounds which the Holy Ghost hath laid down here
and it shall be opened unto you Mat. 7.7 I mention this passage of Scripture to shew that where there is a promise made of being heard and accepted with God and there is the same Notion in the other Scripture even now mentioned and argued there is still something required of men to render them meet to be accepted of him As here God requires of such as are but weak in Faith and of an ordinary growth in holiness and in the love and favour of God that they be frequent and constant in their importuning of him before he will give them the things they desire of him Whereas those who are zealous for God have a more quick and ready audience Christians of a lower form and ordinary growth and stature as I said even now may be heard but they must put more strength to their Prayers and wait long untill they have their answer from God which is signified in these words Seek and ye shall find which shews that if persons have not that excellent qualification in the sight of God to commend them in his love and favour they must work so much the harder and wait so much the longer upon God Shall he not avenge his Elect who cry day and night unto him Luke 18.7 But Noah Daniel and Job if they shall but stand before him the first appearance of them will do it The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open to their cry The righteous cry and the Lord heareth c. Psal 34.15 17. The word open is not in the Original but the meaning is that the ear of God is propense and in a leaning kind of posture towards the cries of the Righteous the word may here be taken Emphatically as many times in Scripture it is for some worthy choice and excellent strain of righteousness Those who are worthy and righteous indeed the ear of God I say is propense and leans and hangs towards them and their Prayers according to that of Cant. 2.14 Let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy voice There is a kind of naturalness and pleasantness between the ear of God and the Prayers and Petitions and cries of such a righteous man Joh. 15.7 If ye abide in me and my word abide in you ask what you will and it shall be done unto you There is a double condition mentioned and expected to be in persons that desire to receive and to have every thing done unto them and for them at the hand of God First Their abiding in his Word that they do not decline it and turn their backs upon it nor cut themselves off from him or hearing him further And secondly If my word abide in you if you be observant of opportunities and improve the times and seasons vouchsafed unto you and will provide and take care that my words abide in you then saith he your Prayer will be the great prevailer at the Throne of Grace God my Father will not deny you any thing that you shall ask of him For I suppose the meaning of these words and my Word abide in you to be this that persons should be solicitous about the words of Christ and matters of duty contained in them and that they should not have them to seek but make special treasure of them and have them alwaies ready at hand that they may be directed and put upon their duty and service by the means of them It is the common case of Christians they would do the things which the Word of Christ requires of them if this Word of his were present in their thoughts and minds but they miscarry at many a turn and fall foul upon many things contrary to their duty only because the Word by which they should be â—â—â—ected is not in their minds nor near at hand unto them They do not 〈◊〉 caâ—â— that the Word of Christ should dwell richly in them It may 〈◊〉 when they meet with it they will give it the hearing and it may be understand it also but if they do understand it they hide it not its their hearts for they that hide we know can find they have not that high esteem of it which they ought for then it would abide with them and not be to seek upon such occasions and at such times when they should be directed by it to do and perform such and such services acceptable unto God and then for want of its presence with them there is a breach in their obedience and consequently in their peace and comforts and they are often thrown upon disadvantages when they come to the Throne of Grace Another place like unto this is Joh. 16.26 27. At that day ye shall ask in my name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you For the Father himself loveth you c. The Father loveth you namely because he knows the love you have unto me which you have declared by believing in me and therefore I shall have no need particularly to intercede for you His desire was to ground them in the greatest confidence of the love of God himself or the Father unto them and therefore he saith inasmuch as you have loved me and declared your affection in believing that I came forth from God therefore saith he the Father himself loveth you and is of himself exceeding propense to hear your Prayers Joh. 14.13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son The meaning of that clause that the Father may be glorified in the Son which steers the sense of the whole Verse doth import this that the things which ye shall ask in order to the glorifying of the Father and that upon the account of me or in my name such Requests and Petitions shall surely be granted and I will stand by you in them and they shall be done unto you Besides we find that the Saints of old Sect. 3 they that were excellent in their waies made account that if they were in any straight or danger or their people stood in need of any special and extraordinary deliverance and protection that it was but their praying to God and interceding for it and they made as due account of receiving of it in such a case as the Husbandman which soweth his Seed doth to reap the Harvest in due time Exod. 17.11 When Joshuah was fighting with Amaleck in the Valley c. The Text saith That all the while that the hands of Moses were lifted up Israel prevailed but being weary when they hung down Amaleck prevailed and therefore they found a way Aaron and Hur to support them and so Amaleck was overthrown Now this lifting up and falling down of Moses hands in Prayer was significative for we cannot suppose but that Moses did pray as effectually when his hands hung down as when they were lifted up And therefore I suppose this is taught and signified unto us by the lifting
hired in the Morning and then with the rest that came later and then with the last that came at the Eleventh hour When the first saw that there was as much given unto those that had laboured but one hour of the day as there was unto them that had borne the heat and burthen of the day this caused them to break out against the Housholder that had hired them as if he were unequal unreasonable and unjust in giving more unto such as had laboured less as they judged it and less to them who had laboured more the proportion of their labour considered Now Christ shews that this might very well be in the Kingdom of Heaven that is in the business of the Gospel and preaching of that in the World that God may justly and upon his own terms though he would not account with such Murmurers and Quarrellers about his terms yet that God was at liberty to make what Law or Terms he pleased for the disposal of his own and to walk by this Rule accordingly that this was just and equal and there was no cause to contend with him or to murmur against him for so doing But it may be some mans Question Sect. 20 But how could any such Terms or Rules be equal for God to proceed by to make these equal in reward who laboured but one hour with those that laboured many and as themselves pleaded their own cause that had borne the heat and burthen of the day To this I answer That God doth not simply and barely estimate the external Actions and Services of men but doth lay together and puts into the balance whatsoever it may be the inward frame of the heart and soul And so we find in Scripture that when mention is made of the righteousness of God in judging of men it is said that he will judge men according to their works and bring forth every secret thing to judgment That which will bear special weight in the judgment of God is the frame of the heart and spirit which it may be some had not the opportunity fully and thoroughly to express in their outward deportments and service in the World but when God comes to pass Sentence and to give Judgment then he will estimate things according to the strictest and accuratest terms of reason But our Saviour in this Parable sets forth the high presuming nature of the Jews in opposition to the Gentiles whom they despised and who at the Eleventh hour of the day were called into the Service of God He there sets forth their Genius and Disposition who because they had done so much and had been so laborious above others in the Works of the Law and in the Ceremonies and Sacrifices and in the legal Rites and Observations therefore they thought they should have double and trebble and a thousand-fold above the Gentiles that came in so late Now the Lord Christ declares unto the Jews Parabolically that he knew the frames of their hearts how they were much expecting and looking for rewards from him for what they did upon the account of themselves but intimates that the Gentiles were content to submit to the good will and pleasure of God that they came in to serve him freely without indenting or any particular contracting with him after the manner which it seems the Jews did Upon this account he makes equal the performance and Services of the Gentiles though it was not of so long a continuance The Gentiles had not been so long in his Vineyard as they had been yet the Gentiles served him with a better heart and more ingenious mind and affections than the Jews did which they ought to have considered and not so much to have stood upon their ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl their Sacrifices and Legal Observations as to contend with God for a reward in rigour of Justice That by the Peny is not here meant Eternal life Chrysostome of old and sundry later Interpreters have sufficiently proved from hence namely that they who come in at the first hour of the day that is the murmurers and those whose eyes were evil because God was good that envied at the bounty and magnificence of God towards the poor Gentiles that such persons are not like to receive the Kingdom of Heaven Salvation from the hand of God Or if we should in the last place understand by the Peny here the Kingdom of Heaven or Salvation it self yet would it not follow from thence that therefore all these workmen had all the same part and the same portion there or the same degrees in glory Because as when it is said that the Righteous shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father though they shall be all equal in this that they shall all shine as the Sun yet it doth not follow that they shall all shine with the same lustre and splendor and brightness but that there may be different degrees of shining So it may be said that all those persons even they that were men of an evil eye and were apt to murmur and grudge at them who they thought were inferiour unto themselves and had not been so long in the Service of God as they supposing I say that those persons should be saved as well as the other yet it doth not follow that therefore there should be no difference between the one and the other for every one may have his Peny if we understand Salvation by it for all the Saints and all Believers that have the least Faith and the lowest degree in Grace as well as the highest they shall all be saved But it doth in no wise follow from hence because they shall receive every man a Peny that therefore they shall each one receive no greater proportion than the other I say it hinders not but that there may be degrees and greater proportions and shares in this Salvation to be conferred upon some above what shall be given or conferred upon other So that the truth is though this Parable be very hard and obscure and accordingly hath tried the Judgments and Understandings of men and divided them to purpose Yet there is nothing can reasonably be brought from it which hath any clear or pregnant Argument against that inequality of rewards which we have been arguing until now So that we shall take this for a ground or Basis of that Discourse which we are upon That certainly there is a variety and difference of Rewards in Heaven there are Crowns some greater and more weightier than others Now this we should have added in the close that the Crowns of greatest weight and glory are prepared for the heads of those who are filled with the Spirit of God these are the persons that shall be highest and nearest unto Jesus Christ in his glory they that shall most abound in the work of the Lord they that are fullest of Zeal and Faithfulness they that will make the greatest disposure of themselves that shall be content to
spend and be spent upon the interest of God in the World certainly if there be any Crowns of Glorie in the World to come more weighty than others they are the persons that shall receive them from Christ Now it only remains that we weigh the Motive and for that I shall refer you to the consideration of what hath already been delivered in this Motive FINIS A Table of such Texts of Scripture unto which light is given in the foregoing Discourse ABraham will command his Children Gen. 18.9 and his House after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord Page 512 Now therefore go Exod. 4.12 and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say Page 143 If there be a Prophet among you Num. 12.6 I the Lord or I Jehovah will make my self known unto him in a Vision and will speak unto him in a Dream Page 143 I said indeed that thy Fathers House shall walk before me for ever 1 Sam. 2.30 Page 30 The Lord hath heard my Supplication Psal 6.9 10. and he will receive my Prayer let all mine Enemies be ashamed and sore vexed Page 529 I will call on the Lord Psal 18.3 who is worthy to be praised so shall I be saved from mine Enemies Page 529 The sorrows of Hell compassed me about Ver. 5 6. He heard my voice out of his Temple and my cry came before him even into his ears Page 529 The eyes of the Lord are upon the Righteous Ver. 34.15 17. and his ears are open to their cry the Righteous cry and the Lord heareth Page 525 Then shall I teach Transgressors the way Ver. 51.13 and Sinners shall be converted unto thee Page 48 They are all plain to him that will understand Prov. 8.9 Page 517 Wherefore is there a Price in the hand of a Fool to get wisdom Prov. 17.16 seeing he hath not a heart Page 474 He that despiseth his way Prov. 19.16 Page 83 84 Labour not to be rich Prov. 23.4 Cease from thine own wisdom Page 474 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not Ver. 5. For riches certainly make themselves wings they fly away Page 474 Awake thou North wind Cant. 4.16 and come thou South and blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out Page 183 184 Make the heart of this people fat Isa 6.9 10. Page 145 And now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me Isa 48.16 Page 145 Neither lift up a cry for this People Jer. 11.14 for if they pray I will not hear them Page 530 Behold the daies come Jer. 30.31 saith Jehovah that I will make a new Covenant Page 145 They should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness Ezek. 14.14 Page 530 When I say unto the righteous man he shall surely live Ezek. 33.13 if he shall trust to his own righteousness and commit iniquity in his iniquity he shall die Page 30 The morning cloud Hos 6.4 and early dew Page 88 Rejoyce not against me Mic. 7.8 O mine Enemy Page 83 Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Mat. 5.48 Page 127 And I say unto you ask and it shall be given you Mat. 7.7 8. seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you For every one that asketh receiveth he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened Page 309 Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Mat. 13.43 Page 122 123 Therefore every Scribe Ver. 52. which is instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is an Housholder which bringeth forth out of his Treasury things new and old Page 435 And they likewise received every man a Peny Ver. 20.9 Page 93 94 119 120 Grant these my two Sons may sit the one on thy right hand Ver. 21 23. and the other on thy left in thy Kingdom It is not mine to give but unto them for whom it is prepared of my Father Page 124 125 For unto every one that hath Ver. 25.29 shall be given and he shall have abundance but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath Page 19 27 28 29 c. Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Ver. 28.19 baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Page 135 c. He saw the Heavens opened Mar. 1.10 and the Spirit like a Dove descending upon him Page 151 152 Why doth the man thus speak blasphemies Mar. 2.7 Who can forgive sins but God only Page 155 156 Ye know not what you ask Mar. 10.35 Page 27 c. For it shall be given to whom it is prepared Ver. 40. Page 27 That he would grant unto us Luke 1.74 that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear Page 68 69 And ye your selves like unto men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the Wedding Luke 12.36 37. that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately Blessed are those Servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them sit down to meat and will come forth and serve them Page 350 Which of you having a Servant plowing or feeding Cattel will say to him by and by when he is come from the field Luk. 17.7 8. go and sit down to meat and will not rather say unto him make ready wherewith I may sup and gird thy self and serve me till I have eaten and drunken and afterwards thou shalt eat and drink Doth he thank that Servant because he did the things which were commanded him I trow not Page 350 c. That was the true light Joh. 1.9 which lighteth every man that cometh into the World Page 284 I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a Dove Joh. 1.32 and it abode upon him Page 153 Jesus answered verily Joh. 3.5 verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Page 156 That which is born of the flesh is flesh Joh. 3.6 Page 18 The wind bloweth where it listeth Joh. 3.8 and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth Page 174 Except you see signs and wonders you will not believe Joh. 4.48 Page 408 I am come that they might have life Joh. 10.10 and that they might have it more abundantly Page 68 But if I do Ver. 38. though ye believe not me believe the Works that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him Page 516 Even the Spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not Ver. 14.17 neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Page 21.22 But the Comforter Ver. 26. which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father
will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Page 164 Abide in me Ver. 15.4 5. and I in you he that abideth in me and I in him bringeth forth much fruit Page 197 198 But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father Ver. 15.26 even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me Page 164 c. He shall receive of mine and shew it unto you Ver. 16.14 Page 216 217 218 And now Father Ver. 17.5 glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the World was Page 136 c. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me Ver. 8. and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they believed that thou didst send me Page 516 c. And when he had said this Ver. 20.22 23. he breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Page 173 c. Men and Brethren Acts 1.16 this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas Page 176 And when they heard that Acts 4.24 they lift up their voice to God with one accord and said Lord thou art God which hast made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all that in them is who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said Why did the Heathen rage c. Page 176 Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost Acts 5.3 Page 42 177 Why have ye agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord Ver. 9. Page 177 For in him we live Ver. 17.28 and move and have our being Page 86 We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost Ver. 19.2 Page 228 Behold I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem Ver. 20.22 Page 43. c Because when they knew God they glorified him not as God Rom. 1.21 Page 68 Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the Father of many Nations Rom. 4.18 Page 105 Giving glory to God Ver. 20. Page 105 c. For I know that in me Ver. 7.18 that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Page 299 But I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind Ver. 23. and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin which is in my members Page 299 For as many as are led by the Spirit Ver. 8.14 c. Page 295 We have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Ver. 15. Abba Father Page 505 c. The Spirit it self bearing witness with our Spirits that we are the Children of God Ver. 16. Page 504 c. And of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came Ver. 9.5 who is over all God blessed for ever Page 189 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Ver. 10.9 c. Page 48 But fervent in Spirit serving the Lord Ver. 12.11 Page 14 Rulers are not a terror to good works Ver. 13.3 but to evil Page 68 Attending continually upon this very thing Ver. 6. Page 68 For the Spirit of God searcheth the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 Page 171 231 232 233 For what man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him 1 Cor. 2.11 Page 171 For though I preach the Gospel I have nothing to glory of 1 Cor. 9.16 for necessity is laid upon me yea woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel Page 353 354 Wherefore Tongues are for a sign not to them that believe 1 Cor. 14.22 but to them that believe not but Prophesying serveth not for them that believe not but for them that believe Page 406 c. Therefore 1 Cor. 15.38 my Beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmovable alwaies abounding in the Work of the Lord for asmuch as you know your labour is not in vain in the Lord Page 112 113 Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves 2 Cor. 3.5 but our sufficiency is of God Page 242 For whether we be besides our selves it is to God 2 Cor. 5.13 or whether we be sober it is for your cause Page 43 44 Having therefore these Promises 2 Cor. 7.1 let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord Page 133 134 Your Zeal hath provoked very many 2 Cor. 9.2 Page 47 He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly 2 Cor. 9.6 and he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully Page 544 For the Weapons of our Warfare are not carnal 2 Cor. 10.4 but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong Holds Page 430 431 There was given to me a thorn in the flesh 2 Cor. 12.7 the Messenger of Sathan Page 492 For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit Gal. 5.17 c. so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Page 252 269 Bear ye on anothers burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ Gal. 6.2 Page 50 51 For he that soweth to the Spirit Gal. 6.8 c. Page 290 Which is his body Eph. 1.23 the fulness of him that filleth all in all Page 131 For this cause I bow my knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Eph. 3.14 15 16. Of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is named That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man Page 58 59 60 That ye might being rooted and grounded in love Ver. 17 18. may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the length and breadth and depth and height c. Page 71 72 73 Let no corrupt Communication proceed out of your mouth Ver. 4.29 30. c. Grieve not the holy Spirit of God Page 12 13 304 305 Knowing whatsoever good thing any man doth Ver. 6.8 the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free Page 112 Many waxed confident by my bonds Phil. 1.14 Page 47 Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 13. for it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure Page 158 Who shall change our vile body Phil. 3.21 c. Page 122 123 That in all things he might have the preeminence Col. 1.18 Page 122 Quench not the Spirit 1 Thes 5.19 Page 10 11 12 God who counted me faithful 1 Tim. 1.12 putting me into the Ministry Page 35 36 I obtained mercy 1 Tim. 1.16 that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern Page 33 For the time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine 2 Tim. 4.3 but will heap up Teachers according to their own lusts
as this is therefore he is said to be sent sometimes by the Father sometimes by the Son And yet the same sending as I said before doth not imply as the Argument would have it as if he changed his place because he is said to be sent from heaven as if he were not resident and present there still But he is said to come from Heaven to shew that the work which he doth accomplish and bring to pass from day to day is a divine work And it is the manner of the Hebrew Dialect and Language to say that that is spoken from heaven or revealed from Heaven which is done with a high hand and in a wonderful and more than ordinary manner As when there is the unbared Arm of God then the work is said to be done from Heaven The Holy Ghost when he was sent down upon the Apostles was as much in heaven as before So much for answer to this Argument we will God willing be briefer in the rest The seventh Argument He that is the gift of God is not God Sect. 13 the Holy Ghost is the gift of God therefore he is not God The sum and substance of this Argument being contracted is this The Holy Ghost cannot be God because he is given God being himself the giver of all things and so not capable of being given and a gift or that which is given being at the disposal of him that giveth which is unworthy to conceive of God viz. that he should be at the disposal of another These three Propositions laid before us in this Argument which are Pillars and supporters of it are all weak and unsound As first That he that is the gift of God is not God or cannot be God Secondly That he that is the gift of God cannot be the giver of all things Thirdly and lastly That a gift is in the power and at the disposal of another For To the first of these God being sui Juris at the absolute disposal of himself for who shall deny him this liberty may give himself unto whom he pleaseth so that God may be both the Gift and the Giver As when the Husband or Bridegroom giveth himself to his Bride he is both Gift and Giver And thus Christ gave himself to his Church in respect of which Act of Donation he is both the Giver and the Gift And the truth is that God in giving his Spirit unto us yea though we should grant the Adversary his blasphemous Supposition viz. That the Spirit is not truly God may yet be said to give himself unto us how much more when we according to the Scriptures which teach us that the Spirit of the Lord and the Lord the Spirit are all one 2 Cor. 1.11 do believe this Spirit is God and consequently giveth himself For what is it for God to give himself unto men but by a free and voluntary disposing himself by Covenant or Promise to become theirs Did he not establish his Covenant between himself and Abraham and his seed after him for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto him and to his seed after him Gen. 17.7 And so afterwards unto Israel this Seed of Abraham did he not say by the mouth of David Hear oh my People c. I am God even thy God Psal 50.7 What is that which is given us more than ours Or what can it be more So that the first Proposition mentioned is notoriously untrue He that is the gift of God is not God or cannot be God From the errour of this Proposition thus evicted as you have heard the weakness of the second fully appeareth many words I shall not need for confutation of it The Proposition was this He that is the gift of God is not cannot be the giver of all things If God be the giver of all things which our Adversary with the Scriptures granteth and affirmeth and withal be his own gift It is a clear case that he that is the gift of God may be yea and is the giver of all things And concerning the Spirit of God it is expresly said 1 Cor. 12.11 But all these things worketh one and the self same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will these words as he will clearly prove that those Administrations and gifts of the Holy Ghost there spoken of are not only distributed and given immediately by him but that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at full liberty of and from himself to order and make this distribution as he pleaseth which is a Character not of a derived and commissionated power but of that which is soveraign and absolute which in this case must needs be divine and appropriate unto God for it is not only said that he worketh all these things and giveth all these gifts but that he giveth and maketh distribution even as himself pleaseth Certainly there was no Commission so large as this ever given out by God for any Creature whatsoever to do by the great things of Jesus Christ and such as concern the Salvation of men to dispose and distribute of them to whom and where and to what degree he pleaseth And accordingly he that in the place last cited is termed the Spirit but all these things worketh one and the self same Spirit He is in the sixth verse expresly said to be God And there are diversities of operations but it is the same God that worketh all in all therefore certainly the Spirit of God and God himself they are one and the same these things duly considered they are impregnably express for the proof of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost For the third and last Proposition of the three specified viz. That a gift is in the power and at the disposal of another neither is this necessary and universally true For God as we have proved is a gift viz. of his own giving and yet is not hereby proved to be at the disposal of another but only and solely of himself so that this Argument is crazie and loose all over As for that which he adds towards the close of it it is altogether as inconsiderable as the rest viz. That if the Person of the Holy Ghost be given unto certain men then he was not Personally with them before and consequently cannot be God by the concession of his Adversaries themselves who deny not that God is alwaies personally present with all alike For the Holy Ghost is noted to be given unto some certain men in respect not simply of his Personal presence with them but in respect of the fruition and enjoyment of his Personal presence or in respect of such a presence of his Person with them which sheddeth or poureth out the love of God abroad in their hearts i. e. perswades men effectually and with power to believe the love of God towards them stirs up many holy thoughts and motions in them from time to time We do acknowledge indeed such a personal presence of his with all men alike
be found and had or no or at the best knows for a certain that they are but sparingly and with a kind of malignity and scantness to be found and to go forth upon this account where he certainly knows that what he desireth and what his soul longeth for is lodged and is to be had in the greatest plenty and abundance He spake as a man that thoroughly understood the natural frame and propension of the heart of a man in that particular we now speak of who said Dulce est de magno tollere Acervo It is a thing marvellously satisfactory and pleasing to the heart of a man to be still taking from a great heap and upon this ground are those Proverbial Sayings There is no fishing like to a fishing in the sea no service like the Service of a King because in one there is the greatest plenty and abundance of that kind of pleasure that Fishers look after And for them that serve and must live by their service there is none like that of Princes because they have abundance of reward and of opportunity whereby to recompense the Services of those that do wait and attend upon them and that is the reason why our Saviour in the tenth of John to render and make men so much the more free and willing to come unto him for the life that they stand in need of doth inform them that he hath not a competency or a sufficiency only of this life but that he hath plenty and abundance of it Speaking of his Sheep saith he I am come that they might have life and not simply that they might have life but that they might have it in abundance or more abundantly as who should say If there were only life in Jesus Christ or if it were there in measure only and in a scanty proportion this would be some kind of regret and men would make a stand in their coming but since he is come upon such terms that all that come to him might have it in abundance this is a motive that doth accommodate and fall in with the Natures and with the Principles of the heart and soul of men And upon the same ground it is that the Scriptures in several places do not only assert and testifie that God is merciful and gracious but abundant in mercy and full of Grace and not simply that there is Redemption in him but plentiousness of Redemption Psal 86.5.15 103.8 130.7 Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way c. let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy and unto our God for he will abundantly pardon The Commodity which we stand in need of is mercy and the pardon of our sins in case we have been unholy and ungodly Creatures this commodity is abundantly in God There it is treasured up as waters are in the Store-house of the Sea There is no end of the Treasures of his Grace Mercy Pardon and Compassion There is no man being in want but had ten times rather go to a rich mans door to be relieved than to the door of a poor man if he knoweth the rich man to be as liberal and as bountifully disposed as the poor man can be These Proverbial Sayings amongst us Better leave than lack Where more is more is to be had are of a consonant import unto the former and they all joyntly and severally declare this that men generally love to seek their desires where they are in the greatest abundance likely to be found Now then they who go about to send men for a filling to such a Spirit that can but fill them in measure and with a straitned and malign quantity in comparison of what an increated Spirit is able to do certainly they do as much as such an error can do to obstruct and prejudice the way of men in such a course as this What do they else but cool if not wholly quench the desires and together with these the endeavours of such who are obedient unto the Doctrine who are in a way of being filled with the Spirit We formerly mentioned a Touchstone to try whether any Doctrine which is presented to us be an Evangelical truth or no Sect. 3 and that was this If it be for the advancement of Godliness for the Gospel being a Doctrine according unto Godliness as the Holy Ghost presenteth it that is so framed and constituted of such and such Principles Promises Counsels and Exhortations as if they were made on purpose to advance Godliness and promote the Interest of it And if this be the nature and frame of it in the general then every limbe and vain of it must have a tendency the same way therefore whatsoever Opinion Notion or Conceit it be if it cutteth the Sinews of Godliness or riseth up against the Interest thereof and causeth men to look off and aside from it this is a most certain sign and proof against it that it is no part or branch of the Gospel but an imagination and lying conceit which hath been engendered and begotten in the dark thoughts of the hearts of men or perhaps rather by a worse hand I mean Sathan who doth nothing else but study and invent Opinions and Conceits and Imaginations which may have some colour of truth that so they may fall in with the Judgments of men He doth invent and mint and set such Opinions abroad in the World and then his next work is as far as possibly he can to find out Agents and Instruments the best he can prevail withal and which are fitted and prepared to promote his design in the World And the better men are the more learned and the more innocent in their lives and conversations can they be prevailed withal these are the chosen vessels for him and fitted for his turn Herein the Devil imitateth the Great God for as God when he hath a design to make manifest his most spiritual truths and most holy things maketh choise of the worthiest and holiest men men that are of the best acceptance with the people round about them because they are likeliest to take so much the better So doth the greatest Enemy of the Peace and Salvation of the World he follows God as near at the heels as he can come if he finds any man better than others he shall do his work and if he cannot find any many of such qualifications as we speak of then he must be content with others for he hath a desire that his Opinion should be promoted though never so unreasonable There is great reason by the way why Sathan should set abroad all the waies he can such Opinions in the World which are derogatory from the honour of the Son of God and from the Spirit of God partly because by this means that he hath the more advantage to derogate from either of these in their esteem and honour amongst men And partly because the works of Creation being appropriate unto God the Father principally and not